Don't Fear the Dark
by Rialga
Summary: Jaune once had the desire of becoming a hero. While that desire still remained, he had a new goal by the time he tried to enter Beacon. But while he may have entered Beacon, it wasn't as a student, much to his own surprise. And now he must contend with the perils of his new job whilst preparing to combat a great threat. But can he do so when darkness is all he now sees and knows?
1. Chapter 1

It's been far too long, fanfiction! Been itching to get back to this, but alas my original novel came first for quite a while these past few months. But now I feel I've reached a point in my novel so far where I can comfortably afford to now begin this new fanfic; my mind will have an easy enough time to transition right back to my novel's story without trouble is what I mean.

That said, expect updates to take much longer now as I bounce back and forth between a chapter for this new fic and my novel, the latter of which is most important to me as it's an idea I've long since dwelled on and am only now really getting into. Also, work sort of keeps me a little too tired to write for particularly long nowadays, though I do my best to persevere and keep on writing.

Now that said, as you'll come to notice, this fic is entirely a RWBY-centric one, more or less free of the crossovers that I normally do. This is intentional on my part for a few reasons. 1) this is an idea that has relatively recently come to mind in light of volume 3's finale and 2) the other fanfics I would like to write in the future will require more research and memorization of several important things before I can write them without sounding stupid on certain matters.

And as is most common in all fanfics, expect me to interpret things from the series and expand on it as I feel is necessary. Oh, and for me to make several changes to canon! So on that note, please be gentle when first initially reading this fic.

Oh who am I kidding?! Whatever it is you think of this first chapter, let me know in either a review or a PM!

Now onto the actual chapter!

P.S. title and rating may be subject to change!

 **Edit:** bolded ending AN.

Don't Fear the Dark Chapter 1

Jaune Arc was, in his own humble opinion, feeling a little nervous. This was the more polite way of saying that he was on the verge of near panic.

 _Calm down calm down calm down…_

Why would he be nervous, one would ask? Because it isn't every day that someone gets personally called by the headmaster of Beacon for a personal meeting.

"Did I remember to brush my teeth?" he muttered to himself as he slowly made his way off the bullhead and touched down onto Beacon Academy ground.

Truly the academy was a sight to behold, so large that it could almost be considered a small town what with its high rising structures, fashioned out of the most magnificent of stone and metal. And thanks to this meeting, sudden as it was, being set for just a few days before the new term was to begin, the sheer lack of people wandering about allowed a peaceful and almost even serene quiet to engulf the entirety of Beacon Academy.

But alas, Jaune was incapable of appreciating its splendor, at least incapable of doing so in its entirety.

Dull blue eyes, pupils faded to the point of obscurity, peered all around the young man, seeing nothing yet perceiving something here and there.

Yes, the only male child of the current Arc line was blind.

 _What a nice place, all in all…_

He shook his head, trying to keep his wits about him. It wouldn't do to have someone come across him looking ready to stroke out.

"Mr. Arc?"

Jaune nearly leapt out of his skin when a voice suddenly made itself known. Or rather, made _herself_ known.

 _Older woman, thirties?_

"A-Ah, yes, that'd be me," Jaune managed to quip as a tall blonde woman with glasses and a riding crop of all things in hand approached him.

Glynda Goodwitch, deputy headmistress of Beacon as well as its combat instructor. Standing at a height noticeably surpassing six feet, the blonde woman towered over Jaune by a good 3 inches. Combined with her almost constant stern expression, she made more for an imposing sight rather than a lovely one.

Which even Jaune, blind as he was, could immediately understand.

"I'm glad to see you've arrived on time. Was your flight here pleasant?" Glynda spoke formally.

Jaune nodded. "It was, thank you," he replied, trying not to sound hasty. He knew of her and of her reputation. One doesn't grow up learning about huntsman and huntresses without learning about people as prolific as Glynda. Or the headmaster on that note. Last thing he wished to do was let his nervousness show through and rub her the wrong way.

First impressions were everything.

And as it was, Glynda was sizing him up currently. Tall and evidently well built under the dark blue pants and zipped up black coat he wore, a hint of a matching black shirt just sticking out of the scruff of said coat.

With his youthful and clearly nervous features and messy blond hair, it wouldn't have been wrong for anyone to label Jaune as almost a stereotypical 19 year old, just barely leaving behind the teen years to enter early adulthood. But something about him couldn't help but make the deputy headmistress narrow her eyes in confusion.

Something was… off about him. His eyes, maybe?

Well, regardless of why, she had a job to do.

"That's good to hear. Then please follow me…" She turned around, ready to escort him personally to Ozpin, who'd been most interested in meeting with this young man.

Just as soon as she turned around though, Glynda paused and chided herself, remembering that the boy was indeed blind if his eyes were any indication. She almost made ready to turn and correct her mistake…

…Only to be surprised when Jaune had been about to follow after her, step for step.

It was enough to give her slight pause. And this was in turn something that the young Arc detected.

"Er, is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing," Glynda replied without hesitation, years of fine-tuning herself to keep her from giving away too much emotion during most times.

She continued to walk and Jaune followed.

For the most part, the trip proved to be a silent one, the only noise being made being the sounds of their footsteps across campus as they made their way to a tower where Ozpin's office lied atop of.

When they finally reached the elevator and it began to ascend to the top, Jaune finally broke the silence, which he'd started to find nerve-wracking.

"So, Mrs. Goodwitch," Jaune began.

"Ms., Actually," Glynda replied.

Jaune's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?" he stated in genuine confusion.

Glynda, for the first time in quite a while, grimaced. Not out of annoyance or anything, but rather out of something akin to uncomfortableness. Just what did this young man mean by that? "Yes… why?"

"How can someone like you be single?" Jaune couldn't help but blurt out without thinking. "You're an incredible person!"

For the first time since she was but a teen, Glynda Goodwitch actually blushed a little. What a forward person this man was.

When the woman shifted her feet slightly, Jaune seemed to realize what he'd said and immediately felt like sinking into the ground somewhere. After throwing himself out of the elevator, first.

 _Very smooth, hotshot._

"A-Ah, e-er…" He tried to salvage the situation. It took him a good few seconds, but he managed to get back to what he'd originally wanted to say. "…So may I ask what this meeting will be about? I haven't done anything wrong, have I?" Given that he wasn't even a student of this academy, to say something like that was perhaps a little stupid, but he felt the need to say it nonetheless.

Far weirder things have happened to him, after all.

"No, not at all, Mr. Arc," Glynda responded, inwardly glad for the awkward moment to have passed by. "It'd be hard indeed for you to be called in for getting into trouble, seeing as you aren't a student here."

Basically rehashing what he'd just thought, Jaune slightly flinched. Thinking it was one thing, but hearing it was another.

 _Not a student here, huh?_

For the longest time, it'd been his dream to become a huntsman, to become strong so that he could fight for the weak. To fight for justice wherever he was needed.

 _To fight the Grimm…_

But his dream had sort of hit a few bumps along the rode within the past few years, enough for him to reconsider things.

However, in light of recent circumstances, he couldn't help but try to follow through on his dream, first and foremost by applying for Beacon despite being 2 years older than incoming freshmen.

Could this meeting perhaps be about his application?

As if sensing some of his thoughts, Glynda spoke again. "Rest assured, Ozpin will be explaining the reason for this meeting in just a moment, Mr. Arc."

"Oh… okay then. And please, just call me Jaune," the blond young man stated.

Glynda allowed herself the smallest of smiles. Something about this oddball of a young man was rather endearing despite having only known for all of maybe ten minutes. "Very well then…"

It was at exactly that moment that the elevator finally reached the top floor, binging lightly to inform the two of their arrival.

Stepping forward into the office of Beacon's headmaster, Jaune slowed a bit in his steps. "Gears?" he muttered to himself.

 _So very many gears…_

"Mr. Arc," spoke a voice, a man. "Thank you for coming here on such short notice."

"A-Ah, thank you for the invite, headmaster," Jaune greeted back, immediately placing the voice. Walking forward, he approached the desk and shook hands lightly with the man behind it without hassle.

This action, so simple in nature, was enough to make both Glynda and Ozpin, whom Jaune had just shaken hands with, perk up a bit. For someone that was blind, Jaune moved with such assurance that one would never think he was blind unless they saw his eyes.

"Please, take a seat. Coffee?" Ozpin offered as Jaune did as he'd asked.

"Oh no thank you. Never really did like coffee," Jaune quipped with a bit of a smile. Unbeknownst to him, this statement made Ozpin frown and Glynda inwardly chuckle. The former was simply too obsessed with coffee somedays.

"Very well. Then allow me to get straight to the point, Mr. Arc," Ozpin said as he too took a seat. "Your application to our academy."

Jaune inwardly nodded as his suspicion had been confirmed. "Is there something wrong with it?" he decided to ask straight off the bat. "Am I somehow too old to start here?" While age was hardly much of an issue in any school, there have been some very rare cases in which it'd given someone some level of trouble.

"There's nothing wrong at all with your application or your age," Ozpin replied. "While not quite common, there have been cases in the past where people a little older than the standard have successfully applied here and became students. However, while nothing is directly wrong with your application… I and Glynda find it to be somewhat… misleading."

Jaune inwardly winced. He knew what he meant, but decided to stay quiet until prompted to speak.

Ozpin had apparently printed out Jaune's application, for he now held it up from his desk, gently shaking it so that the young man across from him could hear it. "According to the application, you were a student at Lux academy, the main primary school in Vacuo. From your first year up until your graduation, you had above average grades in everything. A background investigation confirmed this."

"We also confirmed that your blindness was caused by an accident you were in while out in Vacuo's badlands during your second to last year at Lux." Glynda was the one to speak now, stepping forward so that Jaune could hear her footsteps. "And while it had taken you some time to adjust to your new… handicap…" she began a little delicately, unsure of how the young man felt about his blindness. "You continued to get above average grades in all of your classes. But while 'above average,' your grades were not at the level of 'great.'"

On that particular note, Glynda had spoken much more bluntly, enough for Jaune to nearly twitch in a way that screamed 'ouch!' But alas, the deputy headmistress was right; his grades, both before and after that incident, had been merely above average and still far from the level that would be acceptable for the likes of Beacon Academy to accept. The school only took those with truly excellent results in the hopes that they'd have the potential to become true huntsmen and huntresses.

And that was a category Jaune didn't fall into as far as grades had been concerned.

"Yet in spite of your grades, the incident from just a few days ago painted a far different image of you, Mr. Arc," Ozpin now continued. "This naturally begs quite a few questions concerning you. Not to mention a few other questions such as 'why wait two years after graduating to apply' and 'for what purpose did you apply to Beacon, but not to Shade?'"

Jaune fidgeted in his seat.

 _Of course, they'd know about that…_

"So… you saw that, huh?" Jaune began sheepishly, thinking back to the incident in question. About a week ago, he'd finally arrived in Vale after a long journey and as fate would have it, during a nice little walk a few days back – he'd been also using the opportunity to explore the city – a ruckus had been caused in which the criminal Roman Torchwick was robbing a Dust shop with a few goons at his side.

And when Jaune had bore witness to a young girl fighting said criminals, he'd naturally intervened.

"Indeed we did. Vale's security isn't something to be taken lightly; cameras are almost everywhere nowadays to ensure any criminal act is caught in action," Ozpin explained. "But cameras don't quite explain how someone of your level – at least on paper – can so easily incapacitate the likes of Torchwick. The man is by no means an easy foe to face, yet you subdued him with such speed that the cameras could hardly keep up with it all."

"I've been keeping my skills as sharp as I could manage over the past two years," Jaune replied, carefully choosing his words. But they clearly weren't enough if the unreadable expressions on both his listeners were anything to go by, detected only faintly by Jaune.

"And evidently, you've improved a great deal to perform such a feat," the headmaster said with a slight change in tone that clearly indicated he wasn't buying it. "To be frank, that level of speed you demonstrated is well beyond that of any student. I'd dare say it's on par with the more powerful and experienced huntsmen and huntresses that I've met. In other words, Mr. Arc, if I'm right in assuming your other abilities are up to the same level as that speed… then you're rather _overqualified_ for being a student."

The silence that fell over the room was truly something to behold as was the wide eyed expression of Jaune, his jaw so slack that it looked ready to outright detach itself from his face. Overqualified? Him? So then what does this mean for his application?!

"And we've still yet to hear your reason for applying to Beacon," Glynda now added, fixing her glasses back in place as they slid forward slightly. "Shade Academy was far closer to where you lived and just as exceptional a school as ours. So why come here?"

"…Could it have something to do with your sister, perhaps?" Ozpin questioned.

It was enough to snap Jaune out of his stupor. He came from quite a large family, him being the only boy out of the eight children his parents had. The other seven were all girls, with four of them being older than him while the remaining three were his younger siblings. The oldest of the bunch were twins, ages 24 as of this year whilst the youngest sister was 12.

But the one Ozpin was referring to was the oldest of the three younger sisters, Jeanne Arc. Having turned 17 just earlier this year, she'd been studying and training hard in order to apply to Beacon Academy, having chosen this school due to a want to learn in a completely different environment from home. Their parents had been somewhat reluctant to let her even apply to Beacon, but a soft-spoken talk among the entire family had changed their minds.

Her application had been sent in weeks in advance and Jaune could vividly remember when his family had learned she'd been accepted. Kind of hard not to know when the girl had received the acceptance letter in the morning and had screamed at the top of her lungs in joy. Their poor neighbors had been most displeased with the early and sudden wake up call.

"…Would it be creepy if I said yes?" Jaune answered. He chuckled a little, hoping to alleviate the mood that was growing heavier and heavier to him with each passing minute. The other two occupants in the office didn't join in with his chuckling however and it quickly ceased. "I just want to keep an eye on her… make sure she remains safe."

"She's studying to become a huntress, Mr. Arc. While I can admire your desire to keep your sibling safe, her chosen profession is going to make that impossible," Ozpin stated.

Jaune knew this quite well, but remained undaunted. "I know, sir… but even then, I need to be here for her."

His eyes, his blind eyes which were naturally incapable of seeing anything, zeroed in on Ozpin with pinpoint accuracy. Even when taking into account the fact that the young man could likely locate things and people accurately through hearing and his other senses, the sheer ease with which he did so and the determined stare were nearly enough to make Ozpin and Glynda both question the boy's blindness, if only silently.

"Hmm." Ozpin could only sit there in his seat, with only his thoughts to entertain him for the moment. "You refuse to tell us exactly why you want to be here for your sister," he pointed out. "Not to mention the 'discrepancy' between what your application says about your abilities and the reality captured on camera…"

Jaunce inwardly began to panic. Had he somehow gone too far? Nonetheless, his gaze remained resolute. To show weakness now would likely end badly for him.

He'd tell himself later that perhaps it was right of him to do so.

"Nevertheless, to simply turn you down because of that would be a waste," Ozpin continued, a small smile on his face. "While you appear to be too qualified to become a student here, if only on sheer ability alone, employment of sorts wouldn't be out of the question, yes?"

Jaune's mind needed a good ten seconds to process what he'd just heard. "What."

And just like that, the entire situation was flipped upside down.

As Ozpin now actually smirked and prepared himself to explain, Jaune could only sit there in his chair, completely unmoving.

By God, just what had he gone and gotten himself into?

* * *

 **And that's a wrap for now!**

 **As you can see, I was somewhat inspired by Coeur Al' Aran's fanfic Professor Arc. I say 'somewhat' in that Jaune walked into this situation hoping to become a student, only to get something else out of this instead, just like in his masterful fanfic (Seriously, go read it, it's great).**

 **But it is only there where my fic is like his. Unlike in his fic where Jaune was still as inexperienced at the start as he was initially in canon, Jaune in my fic is considerably different as will his job be, if only officially. Plus a lot of other surprises and twists that I hope you will find entertaining in one form or another.**

 **And again as stated in the above AN, updates will be taking more time as I alternate between this fic and my novel, both of which I've long since been itching to work on. So I hope you understand. Also, this fic will likely be progressing rather slowly in pacing (at least, that's my plan), so the action and plot twists won't be taking place as quickly as they did in my previous fics.**

 **All that said, there's really not much else I can think of to write here, other than that I hope you enjoyed this first chapter.**

 **As always, please review and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

Alright, so I'm back everyone! And man oh man, what time it's been since the completion of the last chapter. The few animes I've been watching this season have finally come to an end (damn it God Eater, what a cliffhanger you left us with!) and the anime community was hit with the news that Ufotable is breaking up Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel into a trilogy! First film of the three set to air in 2017 and oh how excited I am to see it'll turn out.

Also very happy in that next year in the summer, the Dies Irae anime will finally start. After several months of trying to research it and a year or two of simply knowing it exists, I'm very much dying to see how this will turn out as the info I've look up on its plot, setting, and characters is what gave me a good fic idea for the future. Alas, going to have to wait for the anime to flesh out the specifics before I could even think of anything like that.

On another note, just saw Batman v. Superman! While I could see why some would love it and why others would find it lacking a lot, I personally loved it. Sure, I wish some scenes didn't lay on the foreshadowing that greatly, but alas I found the film to be very enjoyable. Serious props to the actors for their skills as I think that was really the highlight of the entire film for me aside from the action.

But enough about that for now… let's get onto the story! So as you've noticed in the first chapter, you could see some parallels to Professor Arc's basic plot, but with a handful of other things as well. I intend to fully capitalize on those things, but not for some time as I intend to try and build things up first. So, in other words… this fic is going to be starting off rather slow (I think I said this too in the previous AN as well) before it really takes off.

So please be patient with me!

Now onto the chapter!

P.S. COMmegamenexe, now known as Kratosirving, on Youtube has finally gotten around to translating Kadenz Fermata and posting the videos for it! Please go check it out!

 **Edit:** bolded ending AN and put line breaks between scenes.

Chapter 2

Ozpin watched in silence from his tower as the bullheads arrived and Beacon's incoming freshmen began to make their way onto campus. Sipping his coffee with nary a sound, he inwardly smirked.

For while dangers were abound in the future, it was surely going to be the start of yet another busy but entertaining year here at the academy.

"Ozpin," Glynda spoke, breaking his cherished silence. The blonde approached his desk coolly, checking over some things on her scroll. "Don't forget about the introductory speech; it's scheduled in approximately half an hour."

She knew full well that the headmaster knew of this, but alas he could be prone to getting too lost in his thoughts on occasions, causing him to lose track of time considerably.

Ozpin merely nodded. "Don't worry, Glynda. I won't forget." He took another sip of his coffee and relished its taste. "Is something else the matter?" he then asked of his deputy headmistress, seeing as she still remained and looked a little concerned.

"Not quite…" she began. She put away her scroll and folded her arms under her breasts. "But it does concern our newest faculty member."

"Ah, Mr. Arc. Is something wrong with his being hired? When you and I first discussed this, you seemed on board, more or less," Ozpin replied as he now turned to face her.

"I was, but I'd been under the impression that he'd be hired on to fill a more inactive role," Glynda responded.

When she and Ozpin had first caught wind of Jaune's actions against Roman Torchwick and had thoroughly reviewed the discrepancies between his transcript and the reality before them, Glynda had seen why Ozpin would consider the boy to be faculty material. But alas, whereas the headmaster had deemed the young man such, Glynda had her reservations still about Jaune's abilities in spite of her rather fast forming bond with said Arc. After all, the video hardly showed what he was truly capable of. Yes, he may have knocked out Torchwick in but one barely visible motion, but just this one action didn't necessarily mean he was so far beyond student level ability that he should be immediately deemed professional huntsman level.

Alas, this was but one gripe she had about the situation. No, what really had her feeling honestly a little bewildered was that Ozpin had successfully hired the young man not just as a member of the faculty, but as an assistant professor.

As an assistant professor to _her_ , Beacon's one and only combat instructor.

"Did you really think I'd hire him as an assistant to Peter or Bartholomew?" Ozpin asked, genuinely curious. "While I'm certain that, given some time, Mr. Arc could adapt quite well to helping them teach their classes, that'd be a waste of his talents. Although the video only caught a brief glimpse of his combat prowess against Torchwick, it's quite clear that his skill in unarmed combat is considerably more advanced than any student's. And as we both know, in more recent years, hunters and huntresses in training all across Remnant have started to become much too reliant on their weapons. We need to try and correct this before it becomes a crippling weakness."

"That's rather assumptive of you. For all we know, he could've drawn a weapon to deal with the thief and the camera simply hadn't been able to capture that instant," Glynda argued calmly, simply wishing to point this out.

"Under other circumstances, I'd agree with you on that. But as I'm sure you recall, he'd gone without his coat for that night. So unless he had a weapon that was small enough and thin enough to fit in his back pocket or under his shirt with creating a bulge of sorts, the possibility of him using an actual weapon is quite low," Ozpin retorted in just as calm a voice as always, sipping his coffee yet again as soon as he'd finished speaking.

Glynda sighed as her boss' one comeback perfectly countered her sole argument. Nonetheless, it wasn't as if she was displeased with how things had turned out. "Very well. I just thought it best to make my concerns known now rather than later. As it stands though, I think he'd be quite a help to me; he can help hold more than one sparring match at once or provide extra assistance if needed should the students get a little too… rowdy."

Ozpin nodded, smiling slightly. "Indeed. Speaking of our newest professor, just where might he be?"

"Still getting used to his new lodgings. Decorating slightly, I believe. After all, we hardly gave him much notice beforehand about all of this." Glynda smirked slightly as she recalled the previous day, when she'd shown Jaune the way to the faculty's dorms. The young blind man had honestly looked so overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events and had only barely begun to have his few things shipped here for him to place in his new lodgings for the foreseeable future. "I've already made sure to inform him of the speech coming up. He will be there alongside us when you address the freshmen."

Ozpin nodded again. And then without another word, turned back around to glance out of the tower yet again.

Out on the ground below, he could clearly see the freshmen walking about, their eyes filled with joy and wonder as they mingled and checked out the campus.

The headmaster could only smirk, though this time a little more softly.

The new school year was to finally begin and with it will come all of its new times of fun and peril.

He just hoped none of his new students would have to pay the price for it.

* * *

Meanwhile, among the freshmen still arriving on campus ground, one in particular stood out, if only for one simple reason.

"Grooooooaaaahhhh…" groaned out a girl, 17 years of age. With extremely long light blonde hair tied into a huge knot that went down her back and a dark blue battle-dress with some armor plates meticulously woven into it to protect her arms and midsection, the girl made for quite a sight. Her youthful features, looking so very much more at home on someone a few years younger than her, were very beautiful, with bright blue eyes to complement her. Being on the short side, around 5 foot 2, made her look all the more stand-outish if only due to the contrast this provided with the moderately sized sword – Crocea Mors – that hung at her slender waist.

But alas, it wasn't the girl's beauty that had some heads turning.

No, it was the girl's relentless drive to not puke her stomach out that had some people looking, if only in sheer worry for her.

Let it be said that this girl, Jeanne Arc, didn't handle moving vehicles of any kind very well.

"Guh, curse you, motion sickness!" she half muttered, half-whined. Tears formed slightly at the corner of her eyes and combined with her momentary pout, she looked like a young girl trying so hard to be an adult. It'd be an adorable sight if her stomach didn't audibly churn, causing passing freshmen to pick up their walking pace.

"Nooo~ don't leave me!" Jeanne wanted to beg, wishing with her heart of hearts that someone would come by and magically cure her of her current physical woes.

Of everyone in the Arc family line, why did she have to be the only one with motion sickness? Riding on vehicles on relatively flat surfaces was okay for her, but throw her on one that bumped around a lot or was prone to moments of turbulence and she'd be begging for death.

"Muuuhhhhh!" Jeanne put a hand to her mouth, feeling something come up. Comical worry hit her hard and gave her renewed strength, enough to go running wildly for the nearest trashcan she could find.

Thankfully for said blonde, the compulsion to puke dwindled as she ran and she carefully moved her hand away as her stomach settled. "Never again… never again!" she declared aloud, throwing her hands up in joy at having avoided disaster. "No more bullhead rides! I'll cherish ground forever!"

Whatever other declarations or praises she wanted to say were cut off before they could be said when an explosion occurred relatively nearby, causing the ground to actually rumble a bit.

Nearly letting out an 'eep' in shock, Jeanne immediately turned in the direction the explosion had come from. Looking around worriedly, she adjusted the protective plate she wore atop her forehead – all the better to protect her! – before slowly walking in said direction.

In doing so, she discovered that perhaps it was the right thing to do, for when she got to ground zero a few minutes later, it was to see a girl around her height and just a few years younger than her lying on the ground.

"Uhm, are you okay?" Jeanne asked said girl out of concern.

Apparently, the girl – dressed mostly in black yet with a noticeable red cloak – hadn't expected anyone to pass by because she nearly jumped right off the ground in sheer fright. "Wah!"

"S-Sorry!" Jeanne apologized, having not meant to frighten the girl. "Just didn't expect anyone to be lying in a small crater, you know…"

The girl, now calming down, laughed very sheepishly. "Oh… so you saw that, huh?" the girl asked, rubbing her head slowly.

"You okay? Just what happened?" Jeanne now asked as she approached. And then she nearly face-palmed. Just where were her manners? "Ah, and I'm Jeanne by the way! Jeanne Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. People love it."

This made her new acquaintance laugh a bit. "Do they really?"

Jeanne weakly chuckled. "…Maybe?"

"I'm Ruby!" Ruby now greeted, but not before smiling at Jeanne's reply. "And I'm okay… just had a… dust mix-up…" She shyly put her hands behind her back and wiggled one foot oddly above ground a bit, as if whatever had happened was something most embarrassing.

The blonde girl could only look on with wide eyes. "Must have been a big mix-up – it left a crater!"

Ruby pouted. "I-It sure did… but I swear it wasn't my fault!"

"Well I don't see anyone else here, Crater Face," Jeanne now joked almost cheekily.

This got another pout out of Ruby, but then the girl blinked in confusion. She took a closer look at Jeanne. "Wait, aren't you the girl that was almost going to puke on the ship?"

This was enough to make the blonde flinch dramatically. "Y-You saw that, huh…?" she now muttered, her reaction mirroring Ruby's from just a moment ago.

"Sure did!" Ruby confessed. Now she was the one with a bit of a cheeky smile. "…Vomit Girl!"

Jeanne glared at her, but it wasn't a serious one. "So mean…" she quipped.

Both girls then burst into laughter. This little encounter between them was all kinds of awkward, but appreciated nonetheless by both of them.

"So you're a freshman here too, I see," Jeanne began, pointing out the obvious. "You look a little younger than the others though."

"Eh heh… yeah, I'm actually 15," Ruby replied a little reluctantly.

This got Jeanne's eyes to widen. "Really?!" When Ruby nodded, the girl felt a little slack-jawed. She'd worked hard to get accepted into Beacon so for a girl 2 years her junior to do the same? It was honestly pretty damned amazing. "How did you end up here then?"

"There's a bit of a story behind that, actually," Ruby began sheepishly.

"Well, I'd definitely love to hear it if you're willing to tell me," Jeanne said with a smile. "We still have some time before the freshmen address, after all."

This made Ruby pause for a moment. "Say, just where is it being held at, anyway?"

"Hmm, the address? At the main foyer, I believe," Jeanne replied after a second to recall where.

"Oh, okay!" A pause. "Sooo… where's the main foyer at again?" Ruby asked.

Little did they realize until now, the two of them had begun to unconsciously walk away from the explosion site, as if to distance themselves from it. It wasn't until now that both took note of this.

Looking around, at first calmly and then with growing worry, Jeanne addressed Ruby. "Err, I thought I was following you there."

"…I thought you were walking there and I just followed along," Ruby replied.

Both girls stared at one another blankly.

"Uh oh…" both said at the exact same time.

They were lost.

And now with less than 15 minutes to get to where they needed to be.

With a sense of desperation now about them, both ran off wildly in the same direction, praying that they'd get there in time if they ran around everywhere fast enough.

And as they both did this and squawked in surprise every now and then over everything, both girls couldn't help but inwardly laugh all the same.

What a way to start the term.

* * *

Elsewhere, Jaune wandered the halls of Beacon in an attempt to get to his destination. He wasn't having much luck.

"I knew I should've asked for directions…" he muttered to himself in a 'how could I be so stupid?' tone of voice. Admonishing himself, the blind young man/new professor walked slowly, listening and 'looking' for any signs of where to go.

He was 'seeing' nothing.

"Oh boy…" he muttered again.

His current little predicament aside, he was still having a hard time coming to grasp with what he's found himself in. He, a 19 year old blind person, becoming a professor at Beacon, albeit an assistant one? Hell, not only that, but the assistant to Glynda Goodwitch, sole instructor of combat classes?

It just felt all too surreal to him.

 _Despite having already unpacked…_

Jaune shook his head in disbelief. Yes, even after having unpacked and gotten his new room into order, it still felt far too incredulous a thing to have taken place, as if he was somehow viewing the life of another person.

One could hardly blame him, however, given the circumstances. To be brought in so suddenly for a meeting with Ozpin and then to be questioned about both his application and reasons for applying would be enough for anyone to feel most rattled. To then abruptly be offered a job solely because of a good Samaritan act was just the icing on the puzzling cake.

Jaune could recall very vividly the meeting from just a few days ago, him sitting there numbly across from Beacon's headmaster as he outlined the job he'd be hiring him for and him just almost stupidly accepting after a moment of stupefied silence.

The memory was enough to nearly make the blond smack himself for just going and accepting the job so easily.

"But in the end, I guess it was worth it," he again muttered to himself. While this certainly hadn't been what he'd wanted by a long shot, he still had ultimately succeeded in his goal: to enter Beacon so that he may try to keep his sister Jeanne safe. Granted, as Ozpin so bluntly pointed out, that would be nearly impossible given her desire to be a huntress, but alas he had to try anyways.

Especially when considering who and what was out there in the world…

The blind young man shook his head, ridding himself of his current thoughts. The last thing he needed was to stress himself out with those particular things.

Instead, he should focus on other things… like the fact he, as an assistant professor, would probably have to teach at some point. "But how?!"

Ozpin had made it quite clear that he'd like for him to eventually teach the students some unarmed combat techniques in order to keep their skillset a little more fleshed out beyond their weapons and semblances. Not that the man was wrong to assume so, but Jaune could only wonder just how in the world the headmaster thought him capable of teaching the students that.

Hell, ignoring that for now, just what kind of students would ever bother to take him seriously? Here he was, a relatively average looking 19 year old, barely two years the senior of incoming freshmen and _blind_ on top of that. Never mind the fact that he had no weapon of any kind nor any sort of actual combat training beyond his years at Lux academy and his own self-taught training.

 _With one exception, of course._

At that particular thought, Jaune could only look thoughtful for a moment, humming in agreement with said thought.

"Well," he then began to whisper to himself. "At least I won't have to grade any tests…" he chuckled weakly in an attempt to make himself feel more at ease.

Results varied.

Especially when someone came along to surprise him.

"Mr. Arc!"

Said blond nearly leapt out of his skin at the sudden calling of his name. Thankfully, for the sake of his dignity, the blind new (assistant) professor was able to keep from doing so. "Y-Yes?" he said as he turned in the direction of the sudden new arrival.

"Greetings, my name is Bartholomew Oobleck! I'm a professor here at this glorious institution, namely a history professor! Ozpin's told me of your hire and the reasons behind it and I'm most interested in getting to know you better!" greeted the man, a tall and lanky guy with dull green hair that was ran wild and dressed in disheveled clothes that would look more at home on a particularly stressed out college students during finals week.

It should also be noted that Bartholomew Oobleck said all of this at approximately 127mph, or so it seemed to Jaune, who took a few seconds to comprehend what'd just been said.

"O-Oh, it's really nice to meet you too," was all he could say sheepishly. Sensing that Oobleck had unconsciously offered his hand forward, Jaune shook it and to his now slightly lowered case of surprise, the green haired professor shook it most enthusiastically and rapidly. "I hope I can get to know you better too. And that you'll show me the ropes too?" Jaune smiled weakly. "I-I mean, I'm sure I'll be doing more than just assisting Ms. Goodwitch after all…"

"Capitol! I look forward to that greatly! But alas, that'll have to wait until later! We have a welcoming speech to hear and it wouldn't do to be late!" Oobleck replied exuberantly. "I take it you need help finding the main foyer?"

"Y-Yeah, this place is still so very new to me that I got lost pretty easily," Jaune admitted, scratching the back of his head lightly.

 _To put it mildly._

"Then please allow me to show you the way!" Oobleck took a massive gulp out of the thermal cup that Jaune hadn't heard moving around until now. At least his new colleague's energy had an explanation behind it now. "Right this way, Mr. Arc!"

Then faster than even the wind could blow, Oobleck charged off to the west, leaving behind one very startled blond.

"Okay… today is going to be another strange day…" Jaune muttered to himself.

And something told him that it was only going to get even stranger as time went on.

* * *

Several minutes later, the welcoming speech was about to begin. And within the main foyer, Ozpin now stood just off stage, sizing up the freshmen that had arrived thus far.

Finishing the rest of his coffee, he narrowed his eyes a little at some of them. So much potential most of them had… a shame it'd go to waste if they didn't find something to strive for.

But alas, that was why they were here. For the faculty of Beacon to train them and offer them guidance, to draw out every last bit of potential they had and help them find a true reason to become huntsmen and huntresses.

"Ozpin…" Glynda whispered to him. She nodded in one particular direction, the doors to the main foyer opening slightly for two of the most interesting freshmen to hastily rush in.

"I see them," Ozpin replied quietly.

Ruby Rose and Jeanne Arc. The former was a combat prodigy trained by her uncle Qrow, an old friend of his. Not to mention her eyes…

But alas, while he'd been the one to scout the socially awkward girl, Ozpin currently held a greater interest in the latter of the duo, who now panted for breath after having run like mad to get here in time. Any huntsman worth his salt had heard of the Arc family, namely the great Julius Arc from the time of the Great War. While his family since had taken up professions outside of combat, the Arc family was still highly respected for their massive amounts of aura and the innate potential that most of them possessed.

Still, this was hardly enough for the headmaster to now have such a keen eye on the blonde, who now laughed with her new apparent friend over something. The amount of aura one had meant nothing if said aura couldn't be used properly or if enemies had comparable reserves. Potential meant nothing if not tapped into.

No, what had grabbed his interest about her was his new professor's interest in protecting her. Ozpin considered himself a most perceptive individual, but he had to admit that he couldn't discern Jaune's true reason for wanting to keep watch over Jeanne. Nonetheless, he was able to tell that the desire to protect her went past the sibling bond they must have.

Jaune had a deeper reason for this and that had no doubt been why he'd accepted the job. But for now, Ozpin would just have to wait and see what that reason was.

"As if I don't have other things to worry over too…" he muttered.

"What was that?" Glynda asked, still near the headmaster.

"Nothing," he replied coolly. He then turned his head slightly to see who else was already here. Off stage with him were the other professors of Beacon academy, the most notable among the lot here being the boisterous Grimm studies professor, Peter Port. A jolly looking man of advanced age, he had the spirit and vitality of someone many years younger. Somewhat notorious among new-coming and longtime students for telling tales of his youth often and boring people to sleep with said stories, he was still a highly respected individual for his approachable attitude.

For all of his hammy ways, Ozpin had a great deal of trust and faith in Peter. But despite this, he was somewhat confused and a little bewildered.

Just where was his other most faithful professor?

No sooner had he pondered this did Oobleck now come in like a bolt of green and white lightning, blasting past other members of the faculty through the back entrance of the main foyer with his thermal cup once more being downed.

"My apologies if I've ran a bit late! I had some other matters to attend to briefly!" Oobleck explained to Ozpin and Glynda, his high-speed way of speaking causing some of the students closest to them to feel a little dizzy from the sheer stress of trying to understand it.

"Of course…" responded a slightly annoyed Glynda, glaring at the man. "While I can admire you desire to continue your research, please refrain from letting it get too carried away."

"But of course!" Oobleck replied. "Also, I'd ran into our new professor and took the liberty to show him the way here!"

The very second he said that, the other members of the faculty immediately grew a little worried. Bartholomew Oobleck, for all of his hyper-competence in combat and various academic fields, wasn't the most qualified person in Remnant to offer directions, much less personally show the way to anywhere to anyone. Given the caffeine-fueled speed with which he moved, it took miracles for people unused to him to keep track of his movements for more than just a split second.

One Glynda Goodwitch wasn't pleased by this. "And tell me, professor Oobleck… did you actually wait for Mr. Arc to catch up?"

Normally, Bartholomew Oobleck was quick to correct anyone that called him professor – he earned his doctorate, thank you very much – but in the face of the deputy headmistress, this all but second nature impulse wilted and died under her stern gaze. Even his words seemed to have slowed when he tried to speak. "I-I… err. That is-."

"Uhhmmm… I'm right here, actually."

The professors gathered nearly went slack jawed when a hand shot up from behind Oobleck, prompting said man to move out of the way to reveal Jaune, who'd been standing just a few feet behind him. The blind young man felt most sheepish when he sensed all eyes on him.

"I've actually been standing right behind him since he got here…" he muttered, just loud enough for those within his immediate vicinity to hear.

The silence that followed among them was enough to make the loud and rambunctious students begin to fall silent, leaving Jaune standing there feeling very, very awkward.

"…I see," Ozpin eventually spoke, a microscopic smile on his face. Of all the people there, only he'd been aware of Jaune's presence from the start and even then he'd nearly missed it. Granted, that'd been due to his focus primarily being on the speech he was about to give, but nonetheless it was quite the accomplishment Jaune had just pulled off.

Truly, it only made the young man an even bigger mystery than he was already quickly turning out to be. And in turn, this only reinforced Ozpin's opinion that he'd done the right thing to hire him.

"Most impressive, Mr. Arc. But before my – no, _our_ – colleagues can recollect themselves and question you on this… there is a speech to be given first." The headmaster looked pointedly at the faculty, taking note of their slack jawed expressions. Even the normally loud Peter and the stern Glynda looked most shocked to see their new assistant professor pull off such a feat.

A shame that Jaune didn't seem to realize just how impressive said feat was. "Recollect themselves…?" He cocked an eyebrow in genuine confusion, which only served to make his fellow faculty members looked even more amazed, if such a thing was possible.

But alas, if the blind young man expected a reply from his new boss, he was sorely disappointed; by the time he'd uttered those two words, Ozpin had already walked up on stage and prepared to welcome the freshmen.

Jaune frowned slightly in still present confusion, but quickly shook it off. Instead, as Ozpin spoke, he shifted position so that he remained out of sight of his sister and of her apparent new friend, whom he was certain would recognize him from the Torchwick incidence several nights ago.

He did so just in the nick of time; just as soon as he moved slightly behind a still bewildered Oobleck, said man glancing behind him to look at Jaune for a moment, both Ruby and Jeanne shifted their gaze away from Ozpin and towards the blond man's general direction, having peripherally detected movement.

"Did I just imagine things?" Jeanne muttered to herself, rubbing her eyes as she slightly tuned out Ozpin's brief speech. She could've sworn she just saw a shock of blond hair that was the same shade as her own.

"W-Wasn't that…?" Ruby also muttered to herself. She could've sworn she saw a familiar looking black coat. While it'd occurred remarkably fast even by her own rather lofty standards, she could recall a mysterious young blond man in a black coat intervening in her battle against Roman and his goons. While he'd moved too quickly for her to get a good glimpse of his face, his pitch black coat had somehow managed to stand out on that otherwise lightly lit night.

"Saw something, Rubes?" Yang then asked, startling her younger sister. The buxom blonde tilted her head in confusion, having heard the redhead whisper to herself just now.

"Wha-? No! Not really…" Ruby said a little too quickly. She didn't want to just go and assume things, so maybe it'd be best to just leave things be for now. Hey, who knows? It could've easily been a trick of the eyes.

But it hadn't been.

 _Silver eyes…_

Jaune, now having hid himself somewhat as Ozpin's brief speech continued, hummed silently to himself as he finally took note of Ruby's unique eye color.

Something within him stirred at the thought. Which then brought about a sense of wariness.

Looks like this new job of his was going to be even harder than he'd originally expected.

* * *

 **And that's that for now!**

 **Yeah, sorry if not much content was poured into this chapter, but I wanted to save the students' stay overnight before initiation and the initiation itself for the same chapter, which if I'd included in this 2nd chapter would've bumped the page count up by a pretty fair amount – probably double what it turned out to be as it is.**

 **And page counts exceeding 20 pages is something I'd like to reserve for much later in the fic when I start the action and dropping of bombshells.**

 **Nonetheless, I hope that you were able to find some entertainment in this chapter as well as the raising of several questions or so… because I still have plenty more lying in wait for you guys!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	3. Chapter 3

And here we are with another chapter! Man, I knew it'd be quite a time gap in between chapters, but now looking at the last time I posted, looks like it's a little longer between updates than I thought. I'll have to improve my typing speed for both this fic and my novel, otherwise the time gap between chapters might grow larger!

Not much else to really say other than just WOW! When I checked my email a day or two after posting chapter 2, I never in a hundred years would've expected so many to favorite or follow this fic! You guys rock!

To that same token, it's honestly quite pressure-inducing, but I relish the challenge to come. Hope that I don't disappoint any of you!

Now onto the chapter!

P.S. Jeanne more or less looks exactly like Joan of Arc/Ruler from Fate Apocrypha. Just throwing that out there!

P.P.S. I aim to explain Jaune's blindness in this chapter, but don't think that that's all there is to it!

 **Edit:** bolded ending AN and added line breaks between scenes.

Chapter 3

The day had come and gone by so fast that most of the freshmen couldn't quite believe what time it was. It hadn't been until a professor had come by to inform them to start getting ready to rest that they all finally began to change – a little hesitantly for some, boldly for others – in the room.

And as some students continued to do just that, one Yang Xiao Long could only grin as she eyed some of the boys that were still in the midst of changing. Or those that had little to wear to sleep other than sweatpants.

Hey, she had a healthy libido, sue her.

Yes, all of just a few hours ago, the blonde brawler had arrived here at Beacon Academy, one of the greatest schools in Remnant known for making its students into fully fledged huntsmen and huntresses. It was sure to be hard, but the blonde, being something of a thrill-seeker, was hardly intimidated by anything just yet.

If anything, she was looking forward to the initiation tomorrow.

But for now, she'll settle for the forms of the guys here. Might as well indulge in some eye candy now that her dad, well-meaning as he is, isn't here to otherwise rein her in.

But before she could get too far in doing so, she was somewhat interrupted by the almost increasingly loud conversation between her younger sister and her new friend.

"Wow, I had no idea you could make something like that by hand!" Jeanne proclaimed as Ruby and her finally sat down for the night to discuss weapons, said conversation instigated by her new young friend. The somewhat easily impressed blonde Arc could only look at Ruby with sparkling eyes.

This was enough to make the redhead blush and smile brilliantly. "Heh heh~ what can I say, Crescent Rose is one of a kind!" She almost sounded as if she was bragging.

No wait, Yang very silently thought, Ruby _was_ kind of bragging. To be expected of a weapons nut. Still, the sight of her socially awkward younger sister making friends so quickly with another girl was enough to make Yang happy a little; Ruby had always been something of a wallflower throughout life, easily intimidated by the thought of meeting new people that weren't family.

So to see her now chatting so easily and lively with another person was pretty touching to the normally loud and boisterous blonde. But not wanting to interrupt the conversation – just yet, anyways – Yang settled for smiling cheekily at the two.

"And to think you were so worried about coming here!" Yang whispered very lowly to herself, remembering how worried Ruby was upon coming to Beacon earlier today.

Looks like that had changed pretty fast.

Still… Yang couldn't help but wonder how Ruby managed to run into this girl. Sure, the redhead had told her the story when they'd met prior to the headmaster's speech, but Yang still couldn't quite believe how Ruby essentially managed to run into an older and blonde and more endowed version of herself – Jeanne was almost just as excitable and awkward as the young girl herself!

Only just more confident in some respects and not as socially inept, if the casual conversations she'd been seen having with others a little while ago were anything to go by.

Hell, Yang recalled seeing Jeanne easily talking to that black haired girl not too long after they'd changed! And said black haired girl had been so quiet beforehand that the blonde brawler couldn't help but feel guilty now for thinking she'd been mute prior to that moment.

Now if only…

"…If only you weren't wearing a onesie," Yang muttered aloud.

"E-Eh?!" Jeanne, she and Ruby having heard her comment, both look surprised by Yang's comment. "Is it not cute enough?" She pulled on her bunny onesie, the admittedly comfortable looking material stretching as she did so.

Yang, having been lying on her side until now, finally sat up and put her hands up as if to placate her fellow blonde. She couldn't help but chuckle. "Eh heh, not really what I meant," she said honestly. "Just that you really stand out with that onesie."

She wasn't kidding there; Jeanne's onesie looked so out of place among the far more casual sleepwear of the freshmen that many people couldn't help but eye her momentarily whenever they walked by. Though in the case of Yang, more guys than girls ended up looking her way due to the yellow tank-top and black shorts she wore, which showed off much off her curvaceous figure while still remaining relatively modest.

"Ah, it was a gift from my oldest sister," Jeanne said with a sudden smile. "It'd be kind of bad if I didn't wear it, right?"

Her smile like a sun, combined with her hair braid having been undone to reveal how long and straight and smooth it was, made for quite a sight. Even with the onesie on to offset the blonde Arc's beauty, Yang almost couldn't help but feel a little threatened.

After all, while sexiness – which she humbly considered herself to have – may count for quite a bit, adorableness was something that was practically universally cherished. And on that front, Jeanne was winning. So far…

Ruby, however, didn't seem to mind the onesie. "I dunno, sis. I think it looks really comfy and cool!" Given that she wore a black tank-top that clashed with the bright polka dot sweats she wore, Yang immediately felt that her sister's fashion sense wasn't quite up to par.

Still, shaking her head in amusement, Yang decided it was high time to join in on this conversation for good. "So weapons, huh?" She looked cheekily at her sister. "Already showing off your baby to others? How bold, Ruby!"

These simple words were enough to make said girl blush a bit in embarrassment.

Jeanne, however, was still able to talk normally enough. "But it's seriously a cool weapon! And the mechanics behind it all… just how did you even get it to work?!" Seriously, a weapon that was a high caliber rifle _and_ a huge scythe? Just how did that work out?

Yang laughed. "You ought to see mine – shotgun gauntlets!" Ah yes, Ember Celica. Ruby could show off Crescent Rose as much as she wants… but to Yang there was only one weapon she'd consider perfect. Her own, of course.

"S-Shotgun g-?!" Jeanne's little mind had just been blown. "W-Whoa, you made that yourself too?"

"Yep! That's how it is for every student!" Yang explained. "What better weapon to use than one you build yourself? How about you, Jeanne?"

At the sudden question, the blond Arc suddenly looked sheepish. "Well, all I have is Crocea Mors… my great-grandfather's weapon."

"Oooohhh!" Ruby sounded positively excited. "Is it a simple weapon?"

"Y-Yeah. Really sharp blade and a shield that can retract to make it easier to carry around. Still weighs the same though…" Jeanne grumbled that last part. While she wasn't ashamed of her weapon, the shield could be a pain to carry on her person given its weight. Its retract function only made it slightly more tolerable due to its smaller size.

But what had her so bummed about having it as her own was that she felt it wasn't hers. No, someone else should've been using Crocea Mors…

As if to sense Jeanne's sudden mood swing, Yang decided to intervene. "Well, nothing wrong with a classic, right Rubes?"

"Right!" All weapons were great, in Ruby's mind. Just not as much as Crescent Rose, was all.

"Eh heh… you think so?" Jeanne said as she was pulled from her thoughts.

"Hey as long as it gets you through the initiation, why sweat things?" Yang said with a casual shrug.

"You're not… worried about tomorrow?" Jeanne could only look at her fellow – and dare she say it, more buxom – blonde with wonder. She was hiding it pretty well, but hearing about the initiation tomorrow was honestly worrying her. Was she ready for it?

Yang intentionally scoffed. "Please, against the great Yang Xiao Long? What stands a chance against me?" she boasted.

Snickering at Yang's exaggerated confidence, both Jeanne and Ruby continued to converse with her, the three proving to get along quite well.

And as the three of them continued to chat well into the night, whatever sort of worries that had been plaguing them seemed to just vanish.

Looks like this was a friendship that would last for quite a while.

* * *

Meanwhile, from afar, Jaune watched this all play out. Well, watched as best as he could anyways.

After all, he was blind.

…Well, in one way, that is.

"If only I could actually see…" Jaune muttered from atop the building next to the one where the freshmen were currently at. With the wind blowing gently around him, his coat billowed slightly, enough for the young man himself to feel the air yet pay no mind to it.

Jaune could only grimace.

Ever since the incident roughly 3 years prior, he'd lost his sight, of that there was no doubt; he could no longer see the world around him at all, which had forced him to very quickly learn how to focus on his other senses to try and compensate. Never mind the effort he had to put into obtaining braille texts for his classes back then and the further effort required to learn how to 'read' it.

Virtually trapped in a world of constant darkness, one would perhaps expect the once aspiring student to feel depressed. After all, the loss of any one sense, especially sight, was a most crippling thing to deal with.

But while he may have lost what could be considered traditional sight, he'd obtained a new kind of sight.

"All the pretty colors…" he muttered softly now.

 _Intermixing so beautifully…_

Despite the distance between him and the students, despite the angle of his perched position and the walls that further obscured normal eyesight, Jaune could still clearly 'see' the forms of every single freshmen there.

More specifically, he could see their auras.

Aura. The manifestation of one's soul. Normally locked away unless forcefully awakened by one's own willpower or by the help of another… that is the only thing that Jaune could now see in the wake of his blindness 3 years back.

Regardless if a person's aura had been unlocked or not, the young man could still so clearly 'see' in the perpetual darkness that now made up his life, the aura always flowing outwards from a person's form, like a bright light in the darkness. This allowed Jaune to make out people's physiques and even some of their clothes since aura was always unconsciously leaking through it.

In the case of people who use weapons – professional huntsmen or huntress, mercenaries, common thugs, etc. – aura was also funneled unconsciously into said tools of battle, allowing the young man to further see what kind of weapon any foes he faced had. Pouring more aura into a weapon only made it that much more visible to the new assistant professor.

Not only that…

Jaune could only smirk a bit as he watched the pure blue aura form of his sister clumsily try to maneuver around others to make a break for the bathroom. He watched as her every step resulted in small ripples of blue waves spreading across the ground.

Yes, another boon to his new kind of 'sight' was that every time someone moved, they'd always generate very small waves of aura that travel a few feet before quickly dissipating. This had the side benefit of illuminating the surrounding area a bit for Jaune. Get enough people together in one place like the new students, and Jaune could practically tell someone else the entire layout of the room, down to the last detail.

But alas… there were a few downsides.

For one thing, while it allowed him to get a very good read on a person's general appearance, their facial features were never fully illuminated by their aura, meaning he'd have to estimate a person's age based on other details, just like what he did with his new colleague and unofficial tutor, Glynda Goodwitch.

For another thing…

 _The Grimm._

Those creatures of unknown origin. Those creatures without souls and therefore without aura. While they were hardly quiet beasts in battle, they were all but invisible to his new 'vision' and were therefore much more dangerous than they would be normally since he can't actually 'see' them.

 _Fortunately, there are ways around this weakness._

Jaune could nod his head at the thought. It'd taken some time for him to do so, but he'd been able to circumvent that particular weakness, which was really what mattered most to him as opposed to the first one. Guessing someone's age wrong was a simple mistake, easily forgiven by his genuine blindness, aura-seeing aside. Not knowing how a Grimm would attack him was something far more brutal to work around.

But that aside… Jaune was most content with his new vision. If anything, it was far more preferable than what he now considered to be 'superficial' vision. Here, in this dark and lonely world of his, the aura of others lit his way quite literally.

And how so beautifully everyone shown.

Young or old, rich or poor, man or woman, human or Faunus, from Vale or from the badlands of Vacuo, from the greatest of saints to the most deviant of criminals… to Jaune, each and every person burned like a bright and seemingly inextinguishable star.

"If only you knew just how beautiful you all are…" he muttered to himself. Recalling his initial meeting with Glynda, he definitely could've gone about it a bit differently, could've made it less awkward… but he didn't regret for an instant that he'd called her incredible. Because he'd genuinely meant it. If he could say it again several more times to her, he'd do it in a heartbeat, just like he'd do to others if given the chance.

Ah how he remembered the incident that had gifted him with this sight, how he'd faded into the realm of unconsciousness following… certain events before waking up two days later to a world of darkness. How that newly formed darkness was then illuminated moments later by the nurse that had come to check up on him.

The poor and confused woman at the time had mistook his sudden sobs to be born from sadness and shock over his lack of sight. If only she knew it was because her aura had been so beautiful to see and so suddenly at that that he'd been moved to tears.

If only everyone else could see as he did now, maybe all of the violence would stop. "If you only knew just how breathtaking you all are…" he whispered.

 _Calm down… getting worked up._

Jaune shook his head, realizing that he indeed was getting too lost in his thoughts and memories. How stupid of him. He's supposed to keep watch over his sister, self-imposed duty or not.

Slapping his cheeks lightly in order to fully rile himself up, Jaune suddenly stood up and turned to leave.

The initiation was tomorrow. While he wasn't taking part in it, he'd still be there alongside some of the other professors to observe.

Turning to leave for good, he prayed for his sister's success. He had the feeling she was going to need it.

Had he remained a moment longer, he might've noticed someone audibly shift their gaze in his general direction.

From within the room, one black haired girl dressed in a yukata felt her cat ears – hidden expertly by a bow atop her head – twitch when she heard movement.

Almost whipping her head violently at the sudden noise, one Blake Belladonna nearly dropped her book to peer out one of the room's large windows.

"Could I just have imagined it?" she thought somewhat aloud to herself. She could've sworn she'd heard a coat fluttering loudly just now in the wind.

Staring at the spot where Jaune had just been at a moment ago, the young woman couldn't help but feel uncomfortable the longer she looked at the vacant spot.

For reasons she couldn't quite understand, she found herself filled with slight dread.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Vale, a young woman in her 20s fumed silently.

"How could things have gone wrong like this?" one Cinder Fall, as lovely as she was deadly, demanded of her two right-hand men.

"Don't know why you're asking us when you were the one there," one of them, Mercury Black, quipped. Normally, the grey haired young man was hard to rile up or otherwise annoy, but it would seem that Cinder's question had rubbed him the wrong way.

Given his statement, Cinder hardly found it in her to be petty. He was right; having somewhat anticipated Roman to draw attention during his most recent heist – as per her orders – she'd decided to accompany the several goons on the bullhead that was to serve as his escape vehicle.

She'd sort of expected someone to show up that'd be above the criminal's level to handle, therefore meaning it'd be up to her to lend a hand, loath she was to admit this.

She'd been right, of course… but not as she'd been thinking.

From afar on that night, just as the bullhead had neared the area, she'd seen Roman briefly engage with a young girl before trying to make his escape… only for a young man with blond hair and dressed almost entirely in black to suddenly appear and cut him off. She'd watched as the two seemed to exchange some words, the new arrival having apparently been trying to talk Roman into surrendering. When that obviously wasn't going to happen, the coated blond had struck Roman down with such speed that even she hadn't been able to make out what had happened, at least not from as far away as she'd been at the time.

But alas, it'd been enough for her to reluctantly order the pilot to retreat before they could be seen, but not before the mysterious blond had also disappeared like a shadow in the night.

The mere memory of this was enough to actually anger Cinder.

While having Roman steal Dust was nothing more than a means to a greater end, something that was beneficial but not ultimately necessary, this new enigma had deprived her of a valuable pawn and a plethora of supplies as far as Dust went. With Roman now in custody, there was no one she could have take over his role, at least not with the same level of expertise as he had, loath she was to admit that as well; the man may have a big ego and may have possibly been a closet narcissist, but he'd been good at what he did and that was crime.

She and her two closest acquaintances – Mercury and Emerald Sustrai – had other and far more important matters to attend to for the immediate future and she highly doubted that Roman's little secret helper – Neo was her name, if she remembered right – would ever take orders from her, at least willingly. She was far too loyal to Roman for that.

Cinder's hands clenched ever so slightly into fists, the action enough to draw the concern of Emerald, who'd been standing off to the side in silence until now.

"…So what now? Should we change the plan?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"…For now, we stay the course," Cinder eventually answered, sighing slightly. "Roman's role in all of this was to simply cause chaos and spread negative emotions in the end… all to draw the Grimm to Vale for our true plan to take effect."

"But now?" Mercury asked.

"It can still work, but we'll simply need to make some _minor_ adjustments to compensate," Cinder immediately answered, almost glaring at the young man.

Mercury wisely backed down now.

Seeing this, Cinder sighed yet again before taking her leave of the room. Whoever this mystery blond was, she intended to find out and make him pay.

While his interference had only marginally affected her plans, no one gets away with it and lives.

No one.

* * *

Night came and went. As morning arrived at Beacon Academy and the students began to wake up and prepare for the initiation ahead, one Weiss Schnee was not happy.

Her unhappiness was due to several things. First and foremost being the idiotic and klutzy young girl that had nearly blown the two of them off campus with that little Dust mishap, then there'd been that raven haired girl having the gall to so bluntly state the faults of her father and company – which were admittedly true, but still. Then she'd had to run into the first girl not just prior to the headmaster's speech, but also during the night as well when she'd been trying to sleep.

And now… just earlier this morning, just as she'd been trying to hold a conversation with _the_ Pyrrha Nikos, four time champion from Mistral, some equally short blonde girl had approached them both and tried to chat them up.

Seriously, did people nowadays not know who they were speaking to?!

It was enough to nearly drive the heiress insane, though she would never give anyone the pleasure of seeing such a possible thing.

Weiss huffed indignantly nonetheless as she finally took her spot among the other potential new Beacon students, the white haired girl pausing ever so slightly upon noticing they were all standing on launch pads.

"Umm, headmaster? What exactly is this?" spoke up the blonde girl that had interrupted her conversation with Pyrrha earlier.

Weiss could only look at her with slight annoyance, but silently agreed with the question asked.

"Why it's a launch pad, Ms. Arc. I'm sure its use is fairly obvious," answered the headmaster, Ozpin, after briefly explaining the objective of the initiation; that the first person to make eye contact with another were partners and that they then must traverse to the ruins within the forest to obtain a relic to bring back.

"A-Ah, okay… So do we get parachutes?" the girl – Jeanne – then asked.

Weiss tried not to roll her eyes. Couldn't this dolt clearly see people already being launched one by one? _Without_ parachutes?

"But of course not; it will be up to each of you to execute your own landing strategy," Ozpin replied coolly, his expression impossible to interpret. From beside him was Glynda, the stern deputy headmistress likewise sporting an unreadable expression.

"…Okay," was all Jeanne could squeak out in response before her own launch pad activated, sending the blonde sailing into the distance. Screaming in fear… or possible joy. Weiss had the distinct feeling the annoying girl might be such a person.

A few more launchings left until her own, Weiss readied her weapon and peripherally looked to see who else was left. She promptly frowned upon seeing the young redhead that had nearly blown them up and later try to make friends with her.

Well, as long as she kept well away from her, the heiress was willing to let things slide. The absolute last thing she wanted to end up as the unfortunate partner to that person.

Watching as Ruby was launched through the sky a moment later, Weiss braced herself just in time for her own launching.

As she soared through the air and deep into the forest, Weiss prepared to cushion her fall. She couldn't help but smile a little as she did so.

Time to show them all who really had it in them to be a huntress.

Several minutes later atop the cliff, the headmaster and deputy headmistress watched in silence through cameras as the Beacon hopefuls traversed through the forest.

Neither Ozpin nor Glynda were particularly worried; they'd discreetly looked into the backgrounds of each individual and had long since determined which of them had the capabilities necessary to pass. As for those that lacked such ability… well, they'd already tasked several teachers to cover certain sectors of the forest, that way should any student find him or herself way over their head, they could be recovered without real harm.

Their silence, however, was interrupted when two arrivals occurred.

"How goes our dear hopefuls' initiation?" bellowed out one Peter Port, the man as jovial as always.

"About as well as expected," answered Glynda. "Several pairs have already formed and are now heading for the ruins."

Peter walked closer to look at Glynda's scroll, receiving a direct feed from one of the many cameras within the forest. He laughed heartily. "What creativity! Not even in my youth did I ever see someone ride an Ursa!"

Currently, Glynda was watching one of the more – in her private opinion – esoteric pairings; a bubbly and very energetic young woman named Nora Valkyrie and a tall and somewhat quiet man named Lie Ren. As Peter had just commented, the former had somehow managed to throw herself onto the back of a wandering Ursa, laughing madly while her partner tried to give chase after them.

"Indeed!" spoke the other arrival, Bartholomew Oobleck. "Ingenuity is a trait that all huntsmen and huntresses should possess! While certainly dangerous, nay life-threatening, it offers the pair a slighty faster means of transport as well as takes advantage of the Ursa's draw to negativity to follow other students towards the ruins!" He said this all, yet again, at nearly Mach speeds.

"With all due respect to Ms. Valkyrie, I don't believe she thought that far ahead," responded a bland sounding Glynda. She nearly huffed at her colleagues' enthusiasm. Still, it was honestly touching just how much faith they could have in others.

"Oho, and what do we have here…? Another odd pairing?" Peter spoke up as he peered over Ozpin's shoulder, the headmaster monitoring the very much dysfunctional duo of Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee. The latter was undoubtedly displeased about the situation, if her barely hidden look of despair was anything to go by.

It was enough to make the boisterous professor of Grimm Studies shake his head, but he was also clearly amused. "My my, I've never seen a bigger pair of opposites; the awkward and somewhat quiet prodigy and the graceful and formal heiress!"

"I wouldn't quite say so," spoke Ozpin quietly. Several pairs of former students sprung into his mind that probably rivalled if not surpassed the dysfunctionality that the newly formed pair was showing.

"Say what?"

All four of them turned slowly in time to see their newest faculty member approach. Despite the relatively warm conditions of today, Jaune Arc still wore his black coat without issue.

"Nothing, Mr. Arc," Ozpin replied. "I see you had no trouble finding your way here." He was relatively quick to point this out, seeing as it's already been just a few minutes since Peter and Bartholomew arrived, meaning he couldn't have followed them, at least not directly.

The implications went unsaid, but Jaune picked up on it nonetheless. "Heh heh… I guess I just have a good sense of hearing." He sure hoped he hadn't said the wrong thing there because both of his now fellow faculty members had been pretty loud just now…

Even without his 'sight,' finding this spot wouldn't have been hard thanks to Peter alone.

Speaking of said jolly man…

"Ah, my boy!" Peter went up to Jaune now. "How horrible of me to not introduce myself until now. I'm Peter Port, professor of Grimm Studies!" He went to shake Jaune's hand.

"Nice to meet you," Jaune said sheepishly as he extended his own hand as well. When his hand met Peter's, the latter's grip tightened exuberantly and gave several hard pumps, nearly lifting Jaune off the ground. "…Hope you won't mind helping me out if or when I'll need it?"

This got a slight chuckle out of the man. "Not at all! I'm always here to help anyone. Not that you will probably need it; why, you seemed to keep up with good old Bart's speed well enough as it is!"

Oobleck, surprisingly enough, grumbled a little to himself. He wasn't _that_ fast now, was he?

"Ah, it wasn't much…" Jaune said awkwardly, sensing Oobleck's emotions a bit. "It did take me a bit by surprise though…"

Peter laughed again and shifted positions so that he was now beside Jaune. He gave a hearty slap to his back.

Jaune only lurched about several inches forward, mainly because of being taken off guard by it.

Everyone there was silently impressed; Peter, while usually a pretty controlled person in spite of his 'normal' attitude, can sometimes forget his own strength a little whenever he was particularly worked up in some form or another. They could attest to seeing him accidentally smack people into the ground or through concrete walls whenever he went for that kind of 'hearty' back slap.

Yet Jaune had only been affected that much…

Well, their amazement aside, Peter didn't seem to think much of it. Or at least, he didn't bother to vocalize it. "No need to be so modest, Mr. Arc! Bart here is undoubtedly one of the fastest active huntsmen out there! To even track his speed for a minute could be considered an accomplishment; to outright follow him from one place to another without losing him is something to be proud of!"

Once again, his words made Oobleck snort a bit, believing the man to be over-exaggerating. As for Ozpin and Glynda, the two sported a rare smile, amused by this.

"I'm sure Dr. Oobleck had held back," Jaune said with a smile, referring to the man by his preferred title – Glynda had given him a slight rundown of the other faculty members earlier – while also being certain that the man could've moved much faster if he'd wanted to. "And please just call me Jaune. Being called 'Mr.' feels kind of… weird."

"Only if you'll call me Peter in turn, Jaune," the man spoke jovially.

"Sure thing… Peter." The blind young man had to hold back his slight awe at being able to call a huntsman of Peter's level by his name. It just felt so surreal since age-wise, he should've been his student instead of his colleague…

"All pleasantries aside," Ozpin now spoke up, bringing any further conversation between Jaune and Peter to an end for now. He fixed his newest hire with a calm stare. "While I am pleasantly surprised to see you've come, Mr. Arc, attendance here wasn't quite mandatory. Especially considering your 'situation,'" the headmaster explained.

Jaune had to hold back a nervous smile. Being blind in the 'superficial' sense meant he couldn't watch the initiation through the cameras his boss and fellow professors were using. But with his 'aura vision' – _note: think of better term_ – he could 'see' a number of the potential students well enough from his current position along the edge of the cliff; their aura shined just brightly enough for him to keep track of them even from here.

"It wouldn't have felt to be the only one staying behind," was what he said to Ozpin though. He scratched the side of his face a little sheepishly. "Even with my blindness though, I can still keep track of the freshmen well enough."

As if to further help him hide his 'vision,' several explosions rang out through the forest along with the angry screams of some larger Grimm. Gunfire then ensued for a moment before stopping.

"…So it would seem," Glynda said wryly. She sighed slightly in worry; on screen, she watched as several students, with the young Ruby and Jeanne leading the charge, attempted to face down a Deathstalker and a Nevermore. The students were now attempting to run away, but it didn't take a genius to see that very soon they'd be forced into a corner and to fight back for real.

"Looks like your sister is about to have her first taste of genuine combat, Mr. Arc," Ozpin then commented, seeing this too on his own scroll.

"Y-Yeah, I kind of figured as much given the Grimm in the forest," Jaune muttered. "Hope she'll be okay."

He looked as subtly as he could to the side, his eyes sticking to the aura of his sister like superglue. With every expenditure of energy, he saw her aura grow slightly duller in color, the result of her aura being chipped away little by little.

He couldn't help but worry. While Jeanne, being an Arc, had vast amounts of aura, that didn't mean she was at less risk of death against the usual threats of the world.

Especially not the greater threats…

"Hmm, well she's partnered with Pyrrha Nikos," Ozpin continued. "That alone should provide her some good help. However, she can't afford to become too reliant on her."

"I'm sure she won't, headmaster," Jaune replied instantly. "My sister… well, she may not exactly be the best fighter, but she can definitely hold her own. All she needs is just a chance."

"Such faith in your family!" Peter exclaimed. He too was watching by peering at Glynda's scroll while Bartholomew did the same with Ozpin's. "And I can see it's not misplaced – she's standing her ground against that annoying Deathstalker like a true huntress!"

"Indeed! But even with three others at her side, victory won't be easy. A Deathstalker's shell is incredibly durable and will be especially effective at withstanding blade attacks, which seems to be the only thing Ms. Arc can rely on given her main weapon!" Oobleck explained rapidly. "The others – Ms. Nikos, Ms. Valkyrie, and Mr. Ren – will also face similar problems as their weapons also sport blades. Bullets will only anger the Grimm further!"

"Wait – something is about to happen," Glynda said suddenly, immediately silencing her two fellow professors.

All of the staff there watched silently as the battled continued on. And just about a minute later, it came to an end.

"Oh my… what an interesting bunch they all are!" Peter couldn't help but say. Just now, during the quick paced battle between the teens and the Deathstalker and Nevermore, Jeanne had taken note of the former Grimm's stinger dangling dangerously on its own and thanks to a quick call on her part, Pyrrha had cut it down with her shield for Nora to literally nail, heavily injuring the Deathstalker while causing the bridge the battle had been taking place on to crumble and fall.

As for the Nevermore, the combined efforts and ingenuity of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had allowed the former of the four to successfully decapitate it.

"Capital! This year may prove to be very interesting!" Oobleck now commented. He couldn't help but admire the tactical intelligence Jeanne had quietly demonstrated and the creativity of Ruby.

Ozpin allowed himself a smile, though it was hidden from sight by his coffee mug, the man only turning around after schooling his expression once more.

It would seem things were going as he'd expected them to so far…

"Your sister has passed, Mr. Arc. Congratulations," he said to the blind young man.

Jaune beamed in both thanks and sheer relief.

 _Worried over nothing… for now._

"Thanks, headmaster," Jaune replied. "Good job, sis…" These last three words were whispered softly to himself.

"And best of luck too."

His face scrunched up microscopically. Now that his sister and the other seven students in her general vicinity had passed, the dangers she will face will only be increasingly greater in scope. Jaune sincerely hoped she'd be ready for that.

Not to mention himself as well.

After all… he had a job to do and failure wasn't an option.

* * *

 **And done! Sorry for leaving out the actual fighting, but alas not much had really changed from canon in that regard. Aside from Jeanne being a more efficient fighter than canon Jaune at the time, she's still rather average compared to the skill and power of her now fellow students hence the lack of difference she's made…**

 **So far.**

 **And again, if you think I gave away too much with Jaune's 'aura vision' (seriously needs a better name, help please?), trust me, it was only the tip of the ice berg!**

 **From here on out is when things will begin to slowly ramp up and really diverge from canon, so I hope you will enjoy what I have in store for you guys!**

 **Until next time! Take care!**


	4. Chapter 4

My God, you all seriously rock! Over the past few days, I finally remembered to check my email a bit more regularly and was floored to see messages telling me that this fic was still getting more favs and follows! I'm honored you all find it to be so interesting, I seriously am. I hope I can continue to live up to your expectations.

On a slightly different note, **dracohalo117** had suggested I use line breaks to make the scene transitions a little better and it is a suggestion I will be implementing starting with this chapter; he made a very good point as even I have started to get really worried over how well my chapters read to you guys. So from now on, whenever I do a scene change (i.e. 'meanwhile,' 'over here…', 'The following day," etc.) I'll be putting a line break prior to it so that it indicates a new scene. I'll still be including a line break prior to my ending ANs just like before, but now I'll be sure to **bold** them (the ending ANs) so that you will know it is the end of the chapter.

As for my opening ANs such as these, however, I'll be leaving them unchanged since they're always followed up by the underlined chapter anyways.

And thank you, **Jaune Black Smudge** , for the scene suggestion and to you all for the suggestions for Jaune's new 'sight!'

Now onto the chapter!

P.S. The previous 3 chapters should have been edited by now to include the new aforementioned line breaks and bolded ending ANs.

Chapter 4

Ruby Rose was confused right now.

Now just because she was confused didn't mean she wasn't overjoyed or anything; she was as happy as could be given the fact that she and her new friends ("yay!") had managed to pass initiation and became students of Beacon Academy for real…

…But on the other hand, the fact that she of all people was made leader of a team was something that was currently in the process of eating away at her low confidence. Could she of all people properly lead a team? Given how well the initial meeting or two between her and Weiss went, the young girl highly doubted it.

…Then again, the first part of their morning today – the crazy way they'd gone about making their bunk beds and setting up their room – had gone well enough, Weiss' misgivings over the process aside… So maybe she could pull this off? Then again, while Yang was always so supportive of her, Blake seemed a little aloof, her enthusiasm here and there aside. And Weiss very, _very_ clearly hadn't looked pleased with how things had ultimately turned out – not just this morning, but how team placements had gone.

Oh yes, Ruby was most certain that the heiress was wishing things had turned out _much_ different.

Of course…

Her drawing away in the middle of their first class ever might be another reason for that, if the angry looks Weiss was shooting her way was anything to go by.

But hey, can she really be blamed?! Professor Port's story was just so boring!

"Heh heh…" Ruby laughed very quietly when one particular antic of hers – using her pencil to imitate the professor's grandiose mustache – elicited a sharp growl out of her partner.

Little did she know, her actions also elicited some slight laughter out of Jeanne as well, who was seated just a few rows back.

And much like Ruby, the blonde was most confused over how things had turned out. Oh, don't get her wrong, she feels honored to be made leader and to be the partner of PYRRHA FREAKING NIKOS (inward fangirl squeal), but to that same token she was in the mindset as Ruby. Could she really be a good team leader? Given her lackluster combat skills compared to PYRRHA FREAKING NIKOS (inward fangirl squeal) and her other two teammates, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, Jeanne hardly felt qualified for the position.

In fact, her feelings on the matter had been so intense that last night, she'd frantically called up her family, begging for advice which had come out in the form of "how do I leader?" Needless to say, her family had congratulated her on a job well done and then proceeded to give her fairly simple/useless advice.

Her parents had told her to simply do the best she can.

Her eldest sister had probably offered the best advice by way of saying to be firm and decisive, but to also remember that her teammates are her friends first.

Her second eldest sister – her eldest sister's younger twin – had told her to take charge from the start and take no shit from anyone (not quite that bluntly, but that had been the general gist of it).

Her third eldest sister, something of a hardcore gamer, had told her to just hit the right buttons when prompted and things will be okay, just like in her various dating sims and button-prompt games… up until she remembered real life doesn't work that way, at which point she hung up on Jeanne.

Her fourth eldest sister – just a year older than Jaune – who was something of a martial arts movie enthusiast, had told her to challenge them all to trials of combat and prove her strength and skills by defeating them so that they'd have no choice but to listen to her no matter what. However, when Jeanne had politely informed her that her partner was PYRRHA FREAKING NIKOS (inward fangirl squeal) along with the feats she'd witnessed her other two teammates perform during initiation, her sister had immediately told her to just give up.

Her second youngest sister, 14 years of age and who Jeanne was somewhat envious of (for reasons one might not think of), had simply been too happy for her to offer any kind of advice.

Her youngest sister, the 12 year old, had likewise been the same.

So.

To put it in fewer words, Jeanne still had no idea how to be leader… well, her eldest sister had given some good advice, so there was that.

That said, this still didn't change the fact that the class she was currently in – Grimm Studies – was slowly killing her and everyone else by way of boredom.

That is, until nearly the end of class.

"Now tell me!" Peter Port's voice boomed with the force of a rampaging Goliath. "Which of you believe yourself to have what it takes to be a true huntsman?!"

"I do!" Weiss then said in sheer indignation. Ruby's antics had finally made her snap.

Jeanne and the others finally perked up interest at what was about to take place. Maybe things would get better from here, after all.

* * *

If only the same could be said for Jaune.

"Oh no," he whispered to himself within the confines of his room. "I done goofed," he then said a little louder.

Why was the blind young man saying this? Why, because it was the first day of classes and that meant only one thing to him.

It was to be the day that he'd finally be formally introduced to the students as both Glynda's assistant and unarmed combat instructor. Both of which he still had no idea on how to properly do.

Oh sure, both Ozpin and Glynda – mainly the latter – had made it clear that he will be receiving training on how to be a proper professor, his assistant status notwithstanding, but it didn't make it any less stressful. Especially since, being blind, any kind of manual he'd need to read up on would need to be in braille, which currently didn't exist in the academy.

So in other words, he'd have only direct advice from Glynda to rely on alongside his own wit. And while he held a great deal of confidence in the former, his confidence in the latter was painfully low.

"I've never trained anyone before…" he whispered in fright. How the hell was he going to manage this then?

 _There's no need to panic._

No, no, no, _no._ There is _every_ need to panic right now. Classes start _today_ , which means he'll be introduced _today_ and be expected to give the students an idea of what to expect from him _today_.

And then… then there is Jeanne and that red-haired girl who saw him take down Torchwick. Both of whom were going to be in the class alongside the other freshmen that Jaune would be 'seeing' today.

His sister had no idea he was even out of Vacuo, having persuaded his family to keep silent on this should she ask about him – oh, he was most certain she did – so that it remained a surprise.

Oh, he could already picture how that'll go…

" _Uh, hey everyone, I'm J-."_

" _JAUNE?!" Cue ruptured eardrums and shattered glass._

Yeah, it'd likely go something like that. So. He'd have to try and keep her quiet somehow when it does come to that point.

Same thing goes double for the young redhead too – Ruby Rose was her name if he remembered right from the formation of the teams – since the absolute last thing he wanted (besides ruptured eardrums) was her letting out the fact that she saw him take down Torchwick. He wasn't sure how or why, but surely such a fact becoming known would only draw the wrong kind of attention.

 _How very dramatic…_

Dramatic, huh? At such a thought, Jaune silently questioned that, but alas didn't let his mind wander on it. Because in all honesty, being dramatic, if only in silence by himself, was to be expected given what now lied before him.

In all honestly again, it was his own fault for not giving this more thought initially. He'd been so focused on what else he felt needed to be done aside from watching over Jeanne and now Ruby that he'd neglected to try and think of how to prepare himself for his actual job.

 _Just wing it then._

Wing it… hah, the thought almost made Jaune chuckle in sheer disbelief. Winging it might work for a lot of things, but for being a(n) (assistant) professor? He wasn't sure that'd go over too well.

The young man sighed. Having been sitting rigidly on his bed, he now slowly stood up, his coat nowhere in sight. "…Oh well." He sighed again. "Just have to bite the bullet…" he muttered.

As he headed for the door of his room, he put on his coat and shifted it slightly before heading out.

It may be a little early in the day, but he might as well go for a walk until his doom came.

* * *

To say that Roman Torchwick was having a bad week would be like saying that the sun was kind of warm or that water was a little wet.

It was just a huge understatement.

"Eat up, candyman," said a bemused guard as he shoved a meal through a special flap at the bottom of the cell door. "Beans and rice and mulch… you new favorite." The guy had himself a little laugh as he then walked off.

Roman seethed.

Following his very much sudden takedown, he'd been promptly arrested and booked on various criminal charges, with robbery, burglary, and cases of assault and battery only being the top of the list. And as such, the legal system had thrown the book at him. Hard.

Now because of this, he was awaiting to be transported to Atlas, possibly the most fortified of the kingdoms with their prisons included, within the confines of a relatively spacious yet no less dull cell in Vale's most secured jail.

Deprived of Melodic Cudgel and his usual clothes, the self-styled 'fashionable man' could only grit his teeth day in and day out at how quickly he'd fallen.

"Damn it… just where the hell is Cinder?" he muttered under his breath as he not so gently grabbed his meal tray off the floor. The woman that had more or less forced herself into his life had promised him to serve as his getaway helper, aiming to fight off anyone that proved to be too much for him to handle. Given his current situation, that promise had been a huge damn lie in his eyes. The bullhead he was supposed to have escaped on hadn't been anywhere in sight when that damned blond punk had shown up.

And oh how very well he remembered that little encounter.

"The hell are you, kid?" he had said at the time. "Friend of little red over there?"

"Any chance you'd turn yourself in?" he recalled the blond responding.

"Hah! Maybe when you learn how to choose your fights a bit better." Roman remembered saying those words almost word for word, having been about to point Melodic Cudgel at him…

…And then remembered how the blond had sheepishly gone "ok." And then there'd been only darkness after that before waking up in the oh so tender figurative grip of the authorities.

Such a memory burned hotly within the criminal. Him, Roman Torchwick, taken down in just one move by some upstart! Oh man, he was sure the criminal underworld was laughing its collective ass off at that bit of news.

"No choice now but to wait for Neo…" he muttered. Ah, yes his one and only partner, his friend for lack of a better term. He and Neo went way back and while it'd be easy for one to misidentify their relationship, they were merely loyal 'friends' to one another, nothing more and nothing less.

As such, he held no particularly negative feeling towards the small woman right now; after all, it'd been Cinder's self-imposed job to help him escape, not Neo's. Especially since the young woman was currently elsewhere taking care of another matter he'd tasked her with.

…Still, he sure was wishing she'd show up soon. This shit they called food was really beginning to cramp his stomach as much as it was doing to his style.

And man oh man, whenever Neo did finally bust him out of here, he was going to have some words with Cinder and her two little lackeys. Even if the woman could roast him alive with ease, he wasn't about to just let her play this off as merely bad luck or something.

"And once I let her know how badly she'd screwed up…" Roman muttered darkly. "That blond punk is _next_."

Oh yeah, he wasn't about to let that guy slide either.

Even if it wasn't out of revenge, letting someone simply take him down like that did bad things for his reputation. He'd have to salvage that as soon as possible too.

But in order to do that…

…He'd have to find out just who the guy was.

Roman could only smirk a little at the thought. Nothing like a good challenge here and there.

* * *

Several hours later and back at Beacon Academy, one Pyrrha Nikos was most eager for the last class of the day. While she had nothing but respect for the professors whose classes she'd just sat through, she will reluctantly admit that some classes left a little to be desired.

Like nearly everyone else, she'd nearly fell asleep during Peter Port's grand tales of his youth. If it hadn't been for the fact that she'd quickly realized the methods he used to take down the Grimm were rather ingenious and effective, she may have actually passed out after all. Thankfully, she'd discovered this to take notes otherwise that fate may have befallen her.

As for Professor Oobleck's class, she'd had just as hard a time keeping up with what he was saying as everyone else. The man talked as fast as he moved and he moved _very_ fast, too fast for most of them to even keep track of.

Thankfully, her other few classes thus far had been far more manageable and even enjoyable and now came for what she hoped would be the most enjoyable one of all:

Combat class, led by the deputy headmistress and sole combat instructor of Beacon, Glynda Goodwitch.

This ought to prove interesting, if nothing else.

"ohhhhh!" Nora let out a very excited cry. "Ren! Ren! It's finally here! The chance to break some legs!" She was positively giddy.

"I don't think we'll be sparring on the very first day, Nora," her friend Ren softly said beside her as they walked next to Pyrrha. "Or that you'd be allowed to break anyone's legs."

Pyrrha could only giggle lightly at the casual response Ren gave to his longtime friend.

Truly, she was blessed. All her life, she'd been placed upon a seemingly unreachable pedestal by everyone for her looks and strength and skill. It'd made for a rather isolated life thus far for her, with people only attempting to get close to her for her fame and even then, they'd stayed a figurative arms-length away from her.

She'd left Mistral to come here to Beacon in the hopes of changing that and on that front, she may have succeeded thus far; while some, such as Weiss, had recognized her and had likewise attempted to appeal to her, there had been others who'd seemed to not really care for her fame or accomplishments.

Her two teammates beside her, one very talkative and the other not so much, seemed to be in the latter category.

Nora had heard of her alright, but had only expressed excitement in maybe getting to fight her one day, to test her abilities against Pyrrha's. Other than that, she seemed to care little for all that Pyrrha had done in her life.

As for Ren, the young raven haired man had simply nodded in approval of her accomplishments when he'd found out and that had been that.

Pyrrha could only inwardly laugh at that. For all she knew, that had probably been only due to how much time and effort he had to expend in keeping Nora relatively reined in. Compared to what havoc the exuberant girl could bring about, being the 4 time champion of a tournament likely meant very little to the man who was essentially the manager of a humanoid typhoon.

And then…

There is her partner and leader, Jeanne Arc, who currently lead the way yet not without shooting her team furtive glances here and there.

It likewise made Pyrrha smile a bit. From the get-go, it'd been most obvious that her leader was a huge fan of hers, but unlike 99% of her fanbase, actually seemed to be capable of controlling herself. Not only that, but in their admittedly brief conversations thus far, the blonde girl seemed to genuinely want to know more about her as opposed to others who only ever asked about her previous accomplishments and what else she'd wish to achieve.

And oh, the things she wished to achieve outside of becoming a huntress.

Like having a fairly normal school life, for example. Complete with dear friends and stupid yet wonderful times.

Oh, and having a boyfriend too. That would definitely be nice. She'd gone without one her whole thus far and as 17 year old girl who'd been unintentionally isolated for so long, Pyrrha will (silently, as in to herself) admit that she was left longing a fair bit for some 'companionship' in every sense of the term.

…Hey, she was just as hormonal as anyone else, yes?

Finally reaching the combat arena, she and her team – team JNPR – quickly sat down amidst the middle rows of the place. Team RWBY, led by a sad looking Ruby with an angry looking Weiss trailing slightly behind her, sat down a few rows away and up.

Pyrrha could only look at them worriedly. From the troubled expressions on all four members of the team, it seemed some dissent was already brewing among them.

"Oh, Ren! It's just like being in a coliseum!" Nora suddenly said, immediately sizing up the room's layout. "I wonder if we'll get to decide who lives and who dies!"

Ren shook his head. "Nora… you do realize this is a school meant to teach us how to protect people, right?"

"Oh… right." Nora giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

Several people around her gave her wary glances before silently scooting a little further away from the entire team.

From beside Pyrrha, Jeanne laughed a little. "At least our team won't be dull, r-right?" she tried to say casually to her redheaded partner.

Seeing that the girl was still trying to rein in her own fangirlness, Pyrrha could only smile, both at her efforts and in agreement with what she'd said. "Right! I hope we can all get along too."

"Y-You bet!" Jeanne said, her face turning a little red in glee. She'd just talked a little with PYRRHA FREAKING NIKOS! And without stuttering so much!

Her train of thought was evident on her face and it was again enough to make the teen in question inwardly laugh again.

Oh this new team of hers was going to be fun to be around. She honestly prayed they would all get to know each other better too.

"Attention, everyone."

Pyrrha's own train of thought came to a halt and she quieted down along with everyone else.

Glynda Goodwitch had just arrived on scene and her stern gaze was all it took to ensure their immediate obedience.

"By now, you all should know my name, but I will introduce myself again for formality's sake," Glynda began. "I am Glynda Goodwitch and not only am I the deputy headmistress of this academy, I am also its sole combat instructor.

"And the way this class works is quite simple; in every single session we will have together, I will select people at random to spar with one another, fighting until their aura – monitored by the scrolls you all have been given – reaches the red zone." At this point, the professor/deputy headmistress held up her own scroll for others to see, her own aura meter as it called be called displayed clearly on the screen. "Matches may be one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three or any other kind of combination such as one individual against two or more others. At the end of every match, I will be correcting any flaws in your style and offering advice. That may not sound like very much, but remember that this class is to offer you combat experience and further hone your battle styles. Therefore, it is still up to you students to keep up with your training outside of your classes."

Now Glynda's eyes narrowed sharply as her gaze swept the room. Unconsciously, people tried to duck their heads into the confines of their shoulders, as if her gaze would make their heads implode in a violent manner. "I stress this: matches are to last _only_ until one's aura meter reaches the red. Any attempt to drag the match on beyond that point will be dealt with harshly. Am I understood?"

Pyrrha could literally feel all of her fellow first years nod their heads alongside her, herself included. The blonde woman was truly an intimidating person.

"Now that said, allow me to inform you of one other thing…" Glynda continued. "And I will be blunt here: in recent years, many students from not just here, but also other academies had become increasingly reliant on their weapons and semblances to soldier on. And after seeing how this year's initiation had gone, I can clearly see that you are all no different."

"Ah, her words. They sting so much…" Pyrrha heard Jeanne mutter from beside her, the blonde looking as if someone had stabbed her in the gut.

Pyrrha could only nod in agreement, feeling herself wince at the statement as well. Thinking back on her performance throughout the years, the redhead was able to objectively deduce that it was true; in virtually every battle she'd been in, she'd used her semblance a little too often at times to secure victory. And very rarely, when she'd been disarmed, had she ever tried to initiate hand-to-hand combat.

"And now it's time to remedy this. So on that note, allow me to introduce my assistant." At Glynda's words, everyone perked up immediately. She paid this no mind and swept an arm out to the side of the arena in which she stood. "Please welcome our new hand-to-hand combat instructor."

* * *

 _There's the cue._

Indeed. No longer was he to remain just out of sight, fidgeting like an idiot.

Time for Jaune Arc to go and bite the bullet.

"Here goes nothing…" he whispered to himself, stepping out from the shadows of the arena's corner and out into the middle of it, where Glynda stood.

The instant he did, he could hear two very audible gasps reverberate throughout the entire room. No doubt that was his sister and young Ruby Rose.

Slowing turning, he was rewarded with so many different colors glowing amidst his never-ending and otherwise impenetrable darkness. Coalescences of different colored lights forming before his very eyes, nearly blinding him with their collective beauty.

It was literally enough to make him turn around – in the opposite direction.

His head hunched down and his dull blue eyes closed, Jaune didn't notice this.

"Er, hey there everyone. As Ms. Goodwitch just sai-," he began.

"Mr. Arc," Glynda suddenly said to him, cutting him off instantly. Nonetheless, she sounded most patient with him. "Jaune… the class is the other way."

"O-O-Oh, my bad!" he stuttered before immediately correcting himself. Stupid nerves! Making him already mess up!

It didn't really help his already low confidence either when his actions made some people chuckle a bit, though for the most part everyone seemed surprised to see him at all.

Jaune played it off as best as he could though. "A-As Ms. Goodwitch just said, I'm your new hand-to-hand combat instructor. Er, the name's Jaune Arc, but since we're all pretty close in age, please just call me-."

He was interrupted again, only far more loudly than Glynda could ever accomplish in her life.

"JAUNE?!" screamed out Jeanne, deafening nearly everyone.

Jaune inwardly swore. He'd been hoping she'd be in shock long enough for him to finish his introduction before reacting. There goes that short-lived dream.

Nonetheless, he played it off. "Yes, that. You could call me Jaune if you feel like it," he said, trying to pretend that just didn't happen.

Without even looking her way, he could feel Glynda glare fiercely at his sister, silencing her instantly before she could say anything again.

He was most thankful for this since it seemed to have silence Ruby as well before she could pull a similar stunt; he saw her already about to rise out of her seat just now prior to Glynda's 'be quiet or suffer' glare.

He himself fell silent as he now felt – and saw – all eyes on him. It was enough to nearly make him chuckle a bit.

The thing about his 'sight' – Aura Trace? Lumine-sense? Aura Sight? Soul Sight? He really needs to think of an actual name for it – is that it also allowed him to sort of see their eyes. While the rest of their faces appeared nigh-impossible for him to actually 'see,' aura leaked out of their eyes, making their irises glow to him and therefore allowed him to see what color their eyes were, such as Ruby's silver eyes or his sister's blue eyes and so on.

Really gave a whole new meaning to 'the eyes being the windows to the soul,' if one asked Jaune.

He was rattled from his thoughts when Glynda spoke. "…I am sure many of you..." She glared again at a red faced Jeanne. "Have a number of questions over this given Mr. Arc's apparent age and skill level, but allow me to address them now – he is qualified for his position."

"Yeah, but how can we know for that sure?" spoke up one particularly brave (i.e. near-suicidal) student from somewhere among the students.

The soul crushing gaze Glynda now sported was enough to make every hair on everyone raise fully in fright.

"Repeat that again," she demanded, her voice remaining perfectly leveled the entire time.

"E-Er, b-but…" the nameless student from before now sounded much more and rightfully scared. "E-Er… seeing is believing, right?" the student finished lamely.

Glynda, having now located who had spoken, glared fiercely at said person. But before she could speak again, someone else spoke.

Her one and only new assistant. "Er, if it's not too much of a bother, I think I could give them a demonstration," Jaune spoke softly, hoping to placate his increasingly angry colleague. He said this for everyone to hear. But then he moved a little closer to Glynda and spoke so lowly that only she could hear. "Better to just give them what they want now than to have them questioning me all year long."

Glynda remained quiet for a moment before inwardly sighing. "Agreed," she said to him. Then to the class, she spoke. "Very well then, if you will question Mr. Arc's qualifications like this, then a demonstration really is in order. So with that in mind, I will be picking one of you to take him on in single combat."

She scanned the now most intrigued audience before her, seeing that many looked interested in seeing how this would now play. It was evident by the now outright excited expressions on most of the students that they thought Jaune to be just a show-boat.

Well, not if she would have anything to say about that. While she too may have some reservations about her new assistant professor's abilities, Ozpin himself had still gone out of his way to hire him. And while the headmaster had more than his fair share of secrets, he did have his reasons for everything.

So if anything, this would put to rest her own doubts as well.

And she knew just who to call on for that.

"Pyrrha Nikos," Glynda called out to the redhead, who looked more surprised at being chosen. "Go and change into your combat attire and get your weapon. You and Mr. Arc will be sparring."

A quiet energy suddenly filled every student there at what Glynda just said. Pyrrha Nikos, quite possibly the most talented and skilled of the new students, was to take on their new 'professor?'

Thoughts on this ranged considerably.

Ruby looked back and forth between the now leaving Pyrrha and Jaune, the leader of team RWBY uncertain of what to expect in the wake of that night some time back.

Weiss looked upon Jaune doubtfully, finding his rather casual yet nervous demeanor to be somewhat annoying. Was this young man truly as skilled as their professor claimed him to be?

Blake stared at Jaune, unknowingly tensing up as time went on. Something was so very odd about him, yet the disguised Faunus couldn't put her finger on it. So now she silently hoped for this intriguing development to shed some light on him.

Yang simply eyed Jaune casually. He was fairly attractive, though his attitude – at least from what she's seen so far – made him look like something of a geek overall. Still, him against Pyrrha was something to look forward to.

Jeanne gazed upon her older brother, a myriad of emotions within her. She was shocked to see him here at all, yet happy. She was feeling embarrassed, hoping that he hadn't seen her do anything particularly stupid thus far. Yet she also felt scared – for both him and Pyrrha. Pyrrha was quite possibly the strongest girl she'd ever heard of, at least among her age group, and so it was only natural that she'd worry greatly for Jaune's safety. Yet… Jaune himself had seemed to cease being 'normal' around the same time of his accident a few years back and the blonde feared what it could mean for her veritable idol.

Nora's demeanor had undergone a stark change, going from loud and rambunctious to silent and almost even studious. She may not exactly have a keen eye for all of the finer details, but something seemed very fishy about the blond guy. A sort of strength was about him that she couldn't identify and that alone was enough to keep the normally energetic girl quiet and guessing.

The now preparing Pyrrha could only wonder what to expect of her sudden match. While she had her own slight doubts about her upcoming opponent, the fact that Glynda Goodwitch would vouch for him so easily said a lot about Jaune already. Still, just what should she trust more in this exact moment: her professor's words on Jaune or her own instincts?

Ren simply gazed upon Jaune stoically, no emotion whatsoever showing through his expression. He was surprised and interested as everyone else at this development, but unlike most of his fellow freshmen, he opted to reserve all opinions on the matter until the very end. Still… he couldn't help but sense something amiss yet couldn't put a name to it even if he tried.

And as for Jaune himself, the blond blind man could only sigh inwardly. He'd long since had the sneaking feeling that things would turn out like this.

Still, he must move on.

So on that note…

 _Time to crush her._

Yes, time to crush his 'opponent' indeed. Not physically – she was now one of his students, after all – but more along the lines of spiritually; leave no doubt behind in her mind or in anyone else's about his ability.

And so now as Glynda moved back to give him and his soon-to-arrive opponent some space, Jaune simply stood and waited.

* * *

It had taken a few minutes, but finally it was about to begin. Having unintentionally taken her time in getting changed and prepared, Pyrrha could only smile apologetically, first to Glynda and then to her classmates, who all eagerly watched as she approached the center of the arena.

Standing approximately ten yards away from her was her new professor, Jaune Arc. She blinked slightly as she finally took notice of something that she believed no one else had thus far.

He was blind, his dull blue eyes a clear indication of this.

She spared a brief glance to Glynda, who simply stared back at her. Pyrrha could only shrug microscopically. Looks like there was no way out of this.

"Now then," Glynda spoke as she stepped forward. She addressed not just both combatants, but also the rest of the class. Tapping away on her scroll for a moment, a huge monitor well above her turned on for everyone to see. A picture of Pyrrha appeared with a green bar beneath it. A full two minutes later, a picture of Jaune appeared on the opposite side of the screen with a green bar as well. "The bars beneath the pictures represent their aura levels. As you can currently see, they're still at full capacity. But as they take damage, the bar will deplete and change color accordingly. Once the bar reaches the red, the match will end, unless I decide to end it earlier."

She narrowed her eyes. "It's key to keep track of how much aura you have left; it could easily mean life or death out in the field… and in here as well." She gazed between Pyrrha and Jaune, the former nodding in acknowledgement of her words. Jaune simply remained still.

The seconds dragged on now, with everyone unconsciously on the edge of their seats, eager to see how this will turn out. That said, many felt that the winner was obvious; there was no way this blond guy could be professor material, let alone student material. He looked and acted too nervous and clumsy earlier.

"Begin!" Glynda now said, signaling the official start of the match. She moved back quickly, having been expecting moves to immediately be made.

But none were; both opponents remained where they were.

On one side of the arena was Jaune, standing there almost impassively. He hadn't even bothered to shift into a fighting stance.

On the other side, Pyrrha eyed Jaune somewhat cautiously yet also doubtfully. Unlike the blond, she had taken up a stance.

Glynda watched this stare-off warily. Although she didn't show it at all, she was now fully intrigued and nervous about how this would turn out. What many people didn't know was that the scrolls provided to the students and faculty here directly tapped into their auras, allowing her to take measure of how much each had and were synced with hers to provide her with this information. How else could she display students' aura levels on the monitor above her?

Now this wouldn't sound like much to most people, but the longer it took for a person's aura gauge to appear on the monitor, the more aura they were likely to have since the 'lag' meant it was taking their scroll some time to fully quantify the amount.

By the standards of her age group and even by the standards of the upper year students, Pyrrha had an exceptional amount of aura due to her status as a natural born prodigy and years of rigorous training. Yet it had only taken a second or two for her aura gauge to be displayed on the monitor.

Jaune's aura gauge had taken a full two minutes in comparison and Glynda had been subtly manipulating Jaune's scroll through her own to put a rush on the quantification… so just how much aura did he have?

Then finally there was some movement.

Alas, Pyrrha couldn't find it in her to make the first direct move. So after some slight thought, she decided to force Jaune's hand instead.

With Milo in hand and Akouo in the other, the redhead shifted the former into its gun form – a rifle. Using Akouo's unique shape to hold her weapon steady, Pyrrha began to slide into a more planted stance to fire.

She began to shift her legs to do just that and then-.

Jaune was suddenly right next to her.

Two hands then shot out towards her, one to her sternum and the other to the back of her right knee. Pushing forward suddenly with both hands, Jaune sent Pyrrha flipping into the air.

The redhead was too shocked to immediately respond. So was everyone else, seeing yet not comprehending what had just happened.

Then when they finally began to realize what had happened-.

Pyrrha was back on the floor. Standing upright in the same spot as before.

Jaune was back where he was before, his dull blue eyes locked onto the redhead.

…What had just happened? That was the thought racing through everyone's mind right now. Just what had happened right now?

But for all of their shocked wonder, it paled before Pyrrha's own sense of disbelief. Hadn't Jaune just been right next to her? Hadn't he flipped her into the air somehow? How could she be back on the ground standing? Had it all perhaps been some kind of illusi-?

Jaune threw Milo onto the ground before him, the weapon clanging deafeningly within the otherwise dead silent arena. And with just this one action, he shattered whatever thought Pyrrha had been having about it having been an illusion.

Pyrrha eyed her own weapon on the ground in disbelief. She even looked to her right hand as if to confirm it was devoid of anything within its grasp.

The second she truly accepted the reality before her, she began to charge forward. But not towards her weapon.

She charged straight at Jaune.

The idea behind this action was to trick him into thinking she was planning to engage him in combat with just Akouo alone. Then when she was too close for him to dodge, she'd use her semblance of polarity to recall Milo to her and attack with it.

Jaune simply stood where he was.

Pyrrha continued her charge, covering the distance between them in mere seconds. Just as she was within melee range of her opponent, she began to utilize her semblance. Instantly, it pulled Milo to her outstretched hand and she proceeded to spin and attempt to slash Jaune just as she shifted it into its Xiphos form.

Only to find Jaune's face merely inches away from her own.

It must have happened during her spin just now… but somehow, the blond young man had immediately closed the remainder of the distance between them during that brief tenth of a second, putting himself far too close to her for her attack to properly strike him.

Gasping inwardly in surprise, Pyrrha immediately called off her attack and tried to pull back, to put some slight distance between them, just enough for her to properly attack with Milo.

Only for Jaune to immediately do the same thing again just as she'd jumped back. He kept pace with her back jump just by appearing to walk casually forward.

Her arms shifting position somewhat during this action, Pyrrha unconsciously noted that Akouo was in the perfect position to bash forward into Jaune's chest. She attempted to do so in that instant.

But again, found herself unable to succeed.

With a swift pivot that would put a dancer to shame with its elegant execution, Jaune avoided the attack while simultaneously moving to Pyrrha's side. Using the back of his left arm, he shoved Pyrrha forward and the redhead went stumbling, her failed bashed having left her balance precariously vulnerable.

But Pyrrha recovered with style. She allowed herself to then fall forward, turning the momentum to her advantage by rolling forward and immediately taking up a shooting position just as she turned around. So quick was this one fluid motion that she was actually able to fire off two shots.

Only to gape when Jaune reached up with his hand and catch the bullets in between his fingers.

The blond proceeded to drop one bullet to ground and then flick the other one right towards Pyrrha's feet. This action in and of itself wasn't anything _too_ surprising… but it was the sheer speed at which the bullet went flying towards its mark that had Pyrrha scared.

It must have been traveling at nearly twice the speed of its original shot. Still, it was nowhere near enough to hit Pyrrha, the redhead immediately moving back to avoid a hit.

Just as Jaune had wanted.

She'd lightly leapt back to avoid the shot and in the middle of that action, Jaune crossed the distance at a speed too quickly for his opponent to notice. With her feet inches off the ground, she was prey to his next action, consisting of him placing his left hand on the side of her face almost gently while lightly shoving her feet aside to her right with his right foot.

This had the effect of essentially tilting her in mid-leap and it was all Jaune needed to then turn his otherwise gentle grip on her face into a sudden shove. Towards the ground, it must be added.

It was only when this occurred that Pyrrha's trained reflexes finally registered danger and attempted to do something about it. But it shouldn't have bothered; right before the redhead could crash into the cold ground, Jaune suddenly bent down and used his entire right arm to halt her and lift her back up onto her feet. Then when she was still shocked from the vertigo, he lightly shoved her away with a gentle palm to the forehead.

When she went staggering back and finally recovered, Pyrrha made no further moves. Neither did Jaune.

Unlike Pyrrha, however, Jaune was content to wait things out in peace this time around.

But Pyrrha, however… her mind was just a whirlwind of thoughts right now, so much so that to even pin down one such thought to focus on was impossible.

Meanwhile, all around them, everyone was dead silent. What was taking place before their very eyes was simply too much for them to handle, beyond their ability to vocalize whatever thoughts they had. Not even Glynda, normally impossible to stun into silence, was able to say anything in the wake of this.

What felt like hours passed by in the arena when it was at most only a minute, if even that. During that brief time, neither combatant moved.

And then…

"W-Why?" Pyrrha said softly. "Why haven't you actually attacked me so far?" This was the only question she could bring herself to ask right now and it deserved some thought, if only for why Jaune had yet to directly attack her.

If anything, he'd been going out of his way to keep her safe; a brief glance up at the monitor showed her aura gauge was still full.

"…Would you prefer it more if I did attack?" Jaune asked, his voice betraying no emotion.

"Maybe. Yes. No. Somewhat." These words spilled from Pyrrha's mouth before she even realized what she was saying. She shook her head and then took up a much more alert and defensive stance than earlier. She had to be on her A-game here. This entire time, Jaune had kept her so stupefied that it'd been near impossible for her to fully exercise her abilities and technique.

"…Okay then," Jaune replied softly.

And an instant later, Pyrrha knew regret.

Too fast for her to physically react to yet just slow enough for her to see coming, Jaune's right fist came barreling at her, aiming for her face. His fist quickly filled the entirety of her vision as it approached like a comet at escape velocity, the simple balled hand filled with one desire and one desire only:

To crush her here and now.

It was too much. Just too much for her mind to fully handle in that instant. While it was a fist to the naked eye, to Pyrrha right now, it was death itself.

And there was no way she could ward it off.

Until…

…It came to a sudden stop. Just as it'd been about to make contact with her nose, Jaune's fist simply stopped without any indication of it having been about to do so.

And what a hit it would've been; the air blew fiercely from the sudden stop enough to make Pyrrha's head tilt back, her hair blown almost straight back too for a second.

In that moment of true befuddlement, Jaune switched from an attack stance to a much more casual one and flicked Pyrrha in the forehead with his index finger. Far from painful, it was still enough to make the girl stumble back a few steps, if only because of how unbalanced the air pressure from the stopped punch had made her.

Using her semblance to keep Akouo strapped to her upper left arm, Pyrrha rubbed the flicked spot, utterly stupefied. She looked to Jaune and saw the blind young man smile softly at her.

"Sorry if I scared you there…" he whispered so that only she could hear. "I swear… I'll make it up to you, Ms. Nikos." His smile softened some more as his dull blue eyes locked onto hers.

In that instant, Pyrrha's heart skipped a beat and not from fear. Her face slowly turned a very light pink at the truly apologetic expression Jaune was sending her way.

Jaune, given his superficial blindness and 'sight,' didn't notice this and instead turned to Glynda. "So, err…" he suddenly sounded sheepish and it took an effort to keep from rubbing his head in embarrassment. "That should be enough, right?"

It took Glynda a full ten seconds to finally reply. "…Yes. I believe it is." She slowly stepped forward, taking the time to school her expression into its usual semi-stoic/semi-miffed self. "The match is over. And the winner is your new hand-to-hand combat instructor, Jaune Arc," she proclaimed for the stupefied audience of students to hear.

This time, as he turned to face the students, Jaune did rub his head sheepishly. "So… there you have it! Uh… let's all try to get along, okay?"

The collective look the students shot him was priceless. A shame, then, that he was unable to see it at all.

* * *

 **So there you have it: Jaune's introduction to the students. Hope it lived up to your expectations!**

 **In all honesty, not much else to really say other than that future chapters will be following this format from now on. Oh and that hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter out in perhaps mid-May.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	5. Chapter 5

Some possibly good news: finally decided that doing longer chapters for my original story isn't quite cutting it; for my original story, I'm likely better off doing shorter chapters of varying lengths, kind of like what Jonathan Maberry does for his Joe Ledger novels. So I'll be doing that from now on, which in turn means that I should be getting around to working on this fic a little more frequently!

So in shorter words, potentially faster updates!

And on a bit of a side note, a good friend of mine has an account on Wattpad and has posted quite a number of stories for people to read! If you happen to be interested in this, look up Santacruz23 on Wattpad! Her current and most popular story is… well, I kind of forgot the title, but it has the word 'Purebloods' in it! Forewarning though: some of her stories are rated M and tend to involve varying levels of yaoi (she's a fan of it). Oh and in order to fully read her stories, you have to make an account on Wattpad to do so. Don't worry though; it's free.

Not much more to add other than that, I'm afraid, aside from yet again another resounding THANK YOU for all of the favs and follows!

Chapter 5

It's been a week since the start of the new school year and Ozpin could say that it was off to a most lively start, thanks in part to his newest hire.

The news of Jaune Arc, Glynda Goodwitch's new assistant as well as the academy's new hand-to-hand combat instructor, utterly crushing Pyrrha Nikos without even actually hurting her had swept all across Beacon Academy like some kind of hurricane, getting everyone from the students to the faculty to even the janitors worked up into a sort of frenzy over just who this new young man was.

It honestly was enough to make the normally calm headmaster smirk a bit as he looked over some paperwork within the confines of his spacious office. The second he'd laid eyes on Jaune, he'd had the distinct feeling that he'd be well worth an effort to recruit, though the man applying to Beacon had honestly saved him some of that trouble. But now after having reviewed a secret recording of the young man's 'demonstration,' Ozpin now felt more sure than ever that bringing Jaune in as part of the faculty rather than as a student had been a wise decision.

For it wasn't simply Pyrrha Nikos, who could already be considered the epitome of the first years in combat prowess, that Jaune had already laid waste to.

Yes, although it's only been just a week since that so-called spar, in virtually every other combat class that had followed in which he was there for, he'd been all but demanded by others to show off his skill again and again. Evidently, many of the students wanted to see if the rumors now suddenly popping up about his prowess were true or not.

As a result of this, Jaune had reluctantly gone up against a second year, a third year, and then eventually even a fourth year. And Ozpin could say that – after watching recordings of each fight carefully – the results of each spar had all been the same.

The second year Jaune had been tasked with going up against had initially walked into the arena with a swagger, clear not believing what he'd heard of the young man, especially when people had also begun to find out he was _blind_. This disbelief of his as well as his overconfidence had cost the second year dearly when Jaune had done to him the same exact thing he'd done to Pyrrha, having effortlessly deflected every single attack he'd thought up before terrifying him into submission with what had finally looked to be an attack of his own.

The third year Jaune had ended up facing the day after that had seen the previous match and therefore walked in much more cautiously. And the third year, one of the most skilled and strongest of the age group, had immediately gone all out from the start against Jaune, having even used his semblance – the ability to teleport himself short distances. It hadn't done him any good at all; Jaune had easily deduced where he'd teleport to and avoid the following attack. He'd ended the spar quickly by way of suddenly grabbing the student immediately after he'd teleported and nearly smashing him face first into the wall, only stopping an inch short of it. The near pain experience had been all it'd taken to make him forfeit before Jaune decided on taking things any further.

But it'd been the last of these impromptu – and no doubt unwanted on Jaune's part – matches that had intrigued Ozpin and his fellow staff the most.

The match against the fourth year, a young woman who was admittedly lacking in skill relative to her fellow fourth years, but more than made up for that in sheer brute strength and her semblance, which was to draw in energy from the very air around her in order to enhance her muscles, essentially increasing her already tremendous attack power. Certainly, a powerful semblance if somewhat simple, though it couldn't be done indefinitely; at most, the young woman could only do it for five minutes straight before she exhausts herself.

But while skill and technique were certainly huge cornerstones of anyone who dared to call themselves a warrior, sometimes overwhelming power was all that it would take to change things up. And that is what nearly had happened in this final match, with the fourth year having used her heavy broadsword – capable of splitting open to reveal a hidden air cannon that could kill even Ursas in one hit – to immediately go on the offensive with wild yet powerful swings to keep Jaune at bay.

It'd perhaps been the one match thus far where it looked as if Jaune had to actually _try_ , if Ozpin was being correct in his assessment.

Still, more effort involved or not, this match, having taken place just two days ago, had ended up the same as the others, with Beacon's newest (assistant) professor being the victor. For while the young woman's powerful attacks had prevented Jaune from literally shrugging them aside like he'd done with his previous opponents, he'd still been able to deflect them with his hands of all things.

Incidentally, it'd also been the only match in which Jaune had actually _attacked_. And what an attack it'd been. After he'd deflected the fourth year's air cannon shot with his _bare right hand_ , he'd immediately struck her with a double palm attack that had dropped her aura gauge from full all the way down to about 5%.

Even now, Ozpin could still recall the utter silence that had followed after that particular moment, the students – and the faculty members – that had come to watch that match having been rendered completely incapable of words. The look on Glynda's face had also been truly a splendid sight to see, if only because of how rare it was to see the stern blonde so dumbfounded.

But in spite of all this…

The headmaster could only sigh now.

While the first week of the school year had certainly proved eventful, it was merely a prelude to all that was to follow. He'd received a message recently from Qrow that had simply stated 'Queen has pawns.' And the mere thought of this was enough to make his good mood quickly evaporate even as he kept working away at his desk.

"What a way to counterbalance things," he muttered slightly as he kept working. Qrow's message to him had been a short one and were it read by anyone else, the message likely would've made no sense at all. But to him, it spoke of vicious battles that were yet to come.

…Perhaps in immediate hindsight now, Jaune Arc's matches thus far were an indicator of sorts of the types of conflicts to come.

Ozpin prayed that this wouldn't be the case… but as he kept on working, he then had the distinct feeling that his prayers would go unanswered.

* * *

Nora Valkyrie was many things. She was a hell of a fighter, hell of a friend, and just an odd type of personified hell in general to those who couldn't handle her usual levels of hyperactivity. These were but a few things that she was.

But what many save for Ren didn't know was that she could also be surprisingly insightful and observant.

…Although in this case, such traits wouldn't really be needed to see how this situation was going.

"Hair… check. Armor… check. Crocea Mors… check."

Currently, the auburn haired girl's team leader was checking herself out in the bathroom mirror, the door open for her to see this in the first place. In a way, it was enough to keep the normally upbeat girl quiet, if only to see what was going on here.

Oh wait, that wasn't really needed at all. She knew exactly what was going on.

"So you all ready there, leader?" Nora finally asked, a grin on her face.

She was rewarded with Jeanne nearly leaping into the ceiling. She even nearly cried out in shock, though suppressed it admirably. "E-Er… y-yeah?"

"So… whatcha getting ready for, anyways?" Nora wiggled her eyebrows as she asked. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from the blonde's own mouth.

She watched in growing amusement as Jeanne immediately opened her mouth to answer, only to suddenly close it, her face going slightly red. "That is… I was going to go train!"

"After putting on some chap stick earlier? And taking a 30 minute long shower to 'smell beautifully?'" Nora then pointed out.

"Erk!" Jeanne took a step back, the words almost literally beating her back. Nora saw this and inwardly laughed like a satanic overlord. Nothing like very slowly teasing others sometimes. Especially when enacting her usual antics would only lead to the destruction of their dorm room. Which wouldn't do at all; she quite liked the set up they already had going and replacing the furniture would be a huge pain. "A-Ah, y-you heard that?"

"Heard it loud and clear, leader!" Nora exclaimed. Her eyes filled with delight at the embarrassed blush spreading across Jeanne's face. It was enough to almost make her feel bad about this hellishly dragged out teasing.

So she decided to just spare the blonde and get straight to the point.

"Going to see your big brother?" she asked with an 'I know what you're up to!' smile.

And she struck gold.

Jeanne played slightly with her long braid of hair, trying to look anywhere but at Nora, whose smile only grew wider with each second of silence. "…Y-yeah…"

Nora could only grin now. She – and Ren – had only guessed this in the aftermath of the match between Jaune and Pyrrha, but now she knew for certain:

Jeanne here was a huge brocon.

Oh, the fun this fact alone could bring for Nora. A shame Pyrrha wasn't here as well to tease a bit; the redhead had gone off to attend to a 'personal matter' as she'd put it and had yet to return. On a side note, Ren had gone out to run some last minute errands for the day.

Focusing on Pyrrha though, the auburn haired girl was sure that was a lie – it was as clear as day to her and Ren that somehow the redheaded champion of Mistral had developed a crush on Jaune in the wake of her defeat.

…Maybe she had some masochistic tendencies?

Well, that was beside the immediate point though. She must tease Jeanne some more, first! "Oh okay then!" She paused and in doing so she swore she saw growing fear in Jeanne's blue eyes. The blonde now seemed to sense what was coming. "Let me know how your confession goes!"

For a few seconds, Jeanne looked relieved. No doubt, she must have been expecting her to say something else.

"O-Oh sur-." But then what was actually said sank in and the blonde's face went atomic red from embarrassment.

So did Nora's, but it was from bottled up laughter instead.

Seeing that Jeanne was practically going to explode though, Nora decided to nip this in the bud somewhat by getting up off the bed and immediately grabbing Jeanne by the hand and leading her to the door.

"I'll be wishing you luccccckkkk~ Now go before anyone else catches his attention!" She said this just as she got Jeanne out into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

"R-Righ-! No, wait!" were the last words Nora heard just as she locked the door.

As Jeanne could be heard whining out in the hallway for a moment longer before reluctantly leaving, Nora could only grin ear to ear.

Oh, this was going to be a _great_ four years at Beacon. She could already tell.

* * *

Jaune, for the first time in quite some time, felt exhausted. Not physically, simply mentally.

He'd known from the outset of all this that he'd been in for quite the experience as a(n) (assistant) professor, but this first week hadn't been what he'd expected at all. Seriously, four spars with students? How in the world had it come to that?

 _You willingly fought Pyrrha…_

Ah right, that. That was indeed true. Got to love how thoughts always remind him of how reality came about and stuff. Yes, truly if any fault lied in this first week, it was with himself; he'd willingly offered up the chance to demonstrate his prowess, against Pyrrha Nikos of all people, and it'd been that that had triggered the other matches.

And now whenever he walked anywhere, students had looked at him as if he were some kind beast in human form, their steps becoming noticeably quieter whenever they seemed to notice him.

Not to mention their auras – which also reflected their emotions to some minor extent – would flair up a bit in some weird ways whenever he passed by. As well as their breathing becoming a little more ragged and quick. That couldn't be a good thing. A lot of the girls (and some guys) he'd passed by exhibiting these two traits really ought to go see the medical ward for some help.

That aside though, Jaune could say that so far it hasn't necessarily been a bad week for him so far, though the sudden spotlight on him had kept him from being able to speak with and explain himself to his sister. Nor did it give him the chance to speak with young Ruby Rose about that night either, though perhaps he might not have to since it seemed no one was going around mentioning his 'encounter' with Torchwick.

"I guess she must be keeping it a secret then for some reason…" he muttered as he plopped unceremoniously onto his bed after returning just now.

His coat nowhere in sight, he rolled over so that his eyes locked onto the ceiling above him, seeing flickers of aura out of the corners of his eyes as the students and faculty went about their business in this lovely and cool afternoon.

Truly, Beacon Academy was something else. For an institution meant to groom young men and women into huntsmen and huntresses, it was so very much like any other normal school, with all of the fun and troubles such a comparison entailed.

…He better brace himself then. He remembered how his social life was like at Lux Academy, with some people trying to bully him and look down on him for not quite living up to the Arc name – prior to his 'incident,' anyways – and while he doubted that wouldn't be an issue now for various reasons, Jaune really didn't want to have to show off any more of his skills.

After all, who knows just who could be watching…

A timid knock at the door interrupted his thoughts several moments later, the blond professor having fallen into something of a slump between those moments.

He didn't even have to look at the door to know who it was.

 _Jeanne._

He smiled at the thought.

Getting up off the bed, he immediately moved for the door at near breakneck speeds.

He and his sister had a bit of catching up to do.

* * *

One Blake Belladonna sighed as she found herself unable to focus on her current book – the next part of the smutty Ninjas of Love series, despite whatever she said to defend it – and reluctantly put it down.

Kind of hard to focus when here within what was supposed to the sanctity of her dorm was shattered by the seemingly never-ending chatter among her fellow teammates.

And the subject they were speaking of was one that admittedly she herself had an interest in.

"I swear that was the guy!" Ruby nearly exclaimed to the heavens.

Blake sighed. For the past few days, her team had been talking a lot about Beacon Academy's newest and most mysterious addition to the faculty, one Jaune Arc.

At some point during such conversations, Ruby had let slip a fact she'd surprisingly been keeping hidden for a while now and it had to do with Jaune. Supposedly, he was the one to have popped up during her fight with Torchwick and take said criminal down.

Yang had believed her.

Weiss… not so much for some reason.

"And I will say it again, how can you be so sure? It's not as if he's the only blond in Vale!" she retorted. She'd been somewhat vehement in denying what she'd seen and heard of Jaune thus far and no one had any idea why, up to and including denying what Ruby was trying to say.

Well, the not so hidden cat Faunus had a fairly good idea; most likely, Weiss had secretly dismissed Jaune out of hand for his demeanor and later his blindness up until he so thoroughly beat Pyrrha within the span of minutes. And without even hurting her either, amazingly enough. Blake supposed it was because the heiress had placed Pyrrha's capabilities on a rather high scale and to see the girl so utterly defeated by someone who'd looked and acted somewhat the part of a goofball was probably really screwing with her perception of reality.

To then be told he'd also been the one to KO Torchwick – his capture being all over the news still – was probably some kind of final straw for her.

Blake's thoughts on this were interrupted slightly when Yang then came to Ruby's defense, the buxom blonde having grimaced just now at Weiss' rebuttal. "But how many guys wear the kind of clothes this new guy wore? The same kind of clothes that the one who knocked out Torchwick wore?"

…Wow, the world must be ending somehow already. Blake had only known her partner for barely a full week, but she'd already come to get a good grasp of her personality. This rather logical side to Yang was honestly something that was throwing the quiet girl for a loop.

And evidently, Weiss was of the same opinion as she shot Yang a shocked look. As for Ruby, she simply looked happy to have her big sis back her up.

But the team leader's smile didn't last too long and her face then scrunched up cutely in thought. "But how come he isn't saying anything about it?" she asked aloud.

"Heck if I know, Rubes… but I can say this much," Yang began, smiling cheekily. "Doesn't make him any less hot."

Blake rolled her eyes as did Weiss, prompting the former to share a brief instant of companionship with the heiress. Yang, from the very moment Jaune had been introduced to the students, had commented he was pretty good looking, but in the wake of his sparring matches, the blonde had come to be increasingly attracted to him. Oh, it was nowhere near the point of a crush – Yang Xiao Long held no such thing as crushes! – but she definitely found him much more appealing than she initially did. Power, of course, can be a very sexy thing.

Ruby's face colored at her sister's words. She also looked a little mortified. "Yang! He's a professor!"

All that did was get the blonde to shrug. "Meh, he's still close to our age, that's all that matters."

Weiss audibly huffed and folded her arms across her chest. Blake in turn sighed, seeing that her team would still need a bit of time to start really getting along; she could practically sense the innate hostility and jealousy of Weiss. Evidently, she still needed to learn that not everything would go her way.

That said, whatever other thoughts she might have had about the heiress came to a sudden halt when said girl rounded on her. "So just what do you think of our new and oh so powerful professor?" Weiss all but demanded of Blake.

That got Yang and Ruby to look at her too, their eyes filled with expectation.

It was enough to nearly make Blake sigh. Her book having been lying at her side, she now carefully maneuvered it back into its original spot without giving away the cover to her teammates. "…I think he's odd. And dangerous."

At the first few words, the others had almost nodded along in slight confusion, but the final word was enough to make them all look at her most quizzically.

"Dangerous? Come on, Blake, he's a pretty tough guy, but I don't think he's-," Yang began.

Blake cut her off. "He defeated Pyrrha Nikos without even looking like he was trying," she stated bluntly. "His first and only attack against her… you may not have seen it, but I saw the look of fear on Pyrrha's face. Now tell me how is that normal for a 4 time champion of Mistral?"

Her teammates fell silent, unable to say anything about that.

She continued. "I also went to go watch his other matches too and he ended up beating them all just as easily."

"Except for the fourth year," Weiss quickly pointed out.

"Except for her," Blake agreed, prompting a slightly triumphant smile from the snow white haired girl. Only for her to crush that smile with her next words. "He only seemed to be trying just slightly more than before… and dropped her aura from 100% all the way down to 5% with just one decisive blow. Tell me that's not scary."

That shut Weiss up well enough, she noticed, the heiress looking away with a grimace.

"Okay… but why is he dangerous?" Ruby then asked with genuine curiosity. And dare Blake say it, even with some form of hurt. From the looks and sounds of things, Ruby may have come to like Jaune, if not romantically – she highly doubted that – then more along the lines of gratitude for stopping Torchwick. "I mean, he hasn't really been threatening or anything."

Indeed, the few times team RWBY had seen him traversing the hallways – with incredible ease for a blind man, they must add – he'd been remarkably cool about all of the glances he surely must have felt everyone shoot him. Hell, he'd been acting just as nervous and goofy as he was prior to the spar with Pyrrha.

Blake had immediately wanted to say because her Faunus senses can pick something up about him, but held her tongue well. She wore this bow for a damn good reason in her own eyes. She didn't trust her teammates nowhere near well enough yet to let them know her heritage. Still, she answered as best as she could. "Call it intuition or a sixth sense… but something about him just seems… off."

"Like there's more to him than meets the eye? That goes for everyone, doesn't it?" Yang responded.

"I know, but even then… there's just…" Blake tried to find the words for it, but couldn't. "There's just something about him that gives me these chills."

Under other circumstances, Yang would've pounced on that kind of statement with an epic retort, something along the lines of 'you've fallen for him pretty hard then' or 'your thirst for him is real!' Instead, the blonde withheld her words at the expression Blake showed.

…Her normally quiet partner was looking so unnerved the more she thought on Jaune.

"…Well, if he really is dangerous," the blond decided to say, smiling slightly. "We'll all kick his ass if he tries something, right?"

Blake could only look at her partner in slight surprise. And then smiled in bemusement. "I suppose… only if really comes to that."

Snickering slightly at the reactions Yang's words also prompted from Ruby and Weiss, Blake inwardly smiled.

Maybe, just maybe this team was what she needed.

* * *

It's been several minutes since she'd stood before the door to her brother's room and Jeanne was most pleased at having been let in by him.

So pleased, in fact, that the hug she'd then given him had almost been enough to knock him down, if only because it'd caught him by surprise. Having laughed and returned the hug momentarily, the two blonds had let go in order to finally talk.

And what a talk it'd been so far.

"S-So, that's why you're here?" Jeanne asked with a blush and a fiddling of her fingers. Currently, she and her brother sat across from one another, with a desk in between them (the rooms of all professors came with a desk to allow them to do any work they might have) and some simple glasses of water in their hands. "To watch over me?"

"Mhm," Jaune replied simply.

The past few minutes had been spent with Jaune telling her how much their family had worried over her going to Beacon and Jaune had elected himself on their behalf to come and watch her from afar, though given he was now a professor here, that 'afar' part hadn't worked out too well.

In all honest, it was enough to make the blonde girl feel so very embarrassed – she was 17! She could take care of herself fairly well!

Then again… her brother was the one here watching over her, so it was all okay…

She giggled a little oddly, her face going red at certain thoughts.

" _Jaune, I forgot to do my homework…" she began softly. "Maybe you can take something else instead…?"_

Before such thoughts could continue to more extreme things – like nonstop petting on the heads sessions or massages or plenty of hugs… just what did you think Jeanne was thinking? – Jeanne was brought back to reality by Jaune.

"You okay, sis? I can tell you're feeling a little odd…" he asked in concern.

"E-Er, I-I'm fine! Sorry about that!" She laughed awkwardly. Jaune had come to learn how to read her emotions and the likes quite well for some time now… ever since his accident roughly 3 years back.

Oh yes, she was aware that _something_ must have happened to him during that event; ever since then, Jaune had just felt like he's changed. Perhaps not in some obvious way – he was still the same socially awkward and goofy yet kind and caring and brave brother she'd grown up with… but still. Something just felt different about him. His presence, maybe?

Jaune simply smiled at her and it was enough to cut off all lines of thought. Her face got even redder and she played with her braid a bit. They sat there in silence for a moment before she finally got the idea to ask another question. "U-Um! So! Uh… how did you become a professor here?"

Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "O-Oh… that…. yeah…" He leaned forward a bit on the desk, out of simple desire to be a bit more comfortable.

Jeanne mimicked the action out of a desire to hear him better. Totally not because she wanted him to catch a whiff of her and see if he found it up to his standards. Nope, totally not that.

"…I have no idea," Jaune then said.

"…Eh?" was Jeanne's brilliant comeback.

"Yeah… I, well, originally applied to be a student here-."

"You did?!"

"Y-Yeah… but instead of getting admitted, the headmaster asked me if I wanted a job here instead, more or less," Jaune replied. He tilted his head quizzically. "And I'm just as confused as you are on that."

"I'm not!" Jeanne stood up as she said this. She pumped her fists excitedly. "I-I mean, you beat Pyrrha freaking Nikos like it was nothing! And you did the same to other students too! You're a badass!"

Jaune was nearly blown back from the sheer volume of her words and this was enough to make the girl go red yet again and immediately sit back down.

But before she could apologize for her outburst, she heard Jaune chuckle. "Well, I'm glad for your faith in me." He turned his dull blue eyes to her and smiled so softly, just like he always did whenever she did something amusing in his eyes. It was enough to get her heart racing instantly. "Just don't make it a habit to exclaim things at me, Ms. Arc," he said jokingly.

The two sharing a laugh, they then fell silent, a silence that was much more comfortable than the previous one.

It didn't last very long though.

"Crocea Mors, right? That's your weapon?" Jaune asked, his gaze never leaving his sister.

"Yeah…" Jeanne hefted the weapon slightly, enough for her brother to hear it rattle at her side. Her expression turned slightly sour. "It should be your weapon though…"

She was surprised when she saw her brother shake his head. "No," he said firmly. "It's your weapon now, Jeanne… in all honesty, the sword and shield wouldn't have suited me very well." He laughed a little as he raised his fists up for her to see. "I've discovered that my fists are the way to go about things."

Slowly, Jeanne giggled. "Looks that way now…"

Back when Jaune had been in Lux Academy, Crocea Mors had actually been his weapon. From when he started at Lux up until his accident, the blade and shield had rarely left his side in spite of his somewhat poor skill with it. He may have been able to get above average grades in his combat classes there, but he had to work very hard for it; he'd always been so awkward with Crocea Mors no matter how much he trained with it.

But then when the accident had occurred and he was forced to take some time out of combat classes to adjust to his blindness, he'd passed on the weapon of his great-grandfather to Jeanne out of the blue, who even then had been training with a plain sword to become a huntress. After he returned to combat classes at Lux, he'd gone about using only his bare hands… and surprisingly, had gone on to do just as well as he'd been doing before and with far more coordination about it all as opposed to the rigid and awkward way he'd gone about using Crocea Mors.

And evidently, his unarmed combat prowess had improved a lot since then. Still… it hadn't quite been enough to rid the younger of the two siblings here of the uncomfortableness she felt; having only had Crocea Mors for a relatively short amount of time, she still felt the weapon belonged to her brother.

And these memories were enough to make Jeanne unconsciously draw the blade now, examining it as she held it close to the desk. Her smile took on a solemn quality. Her beloved brother may have passed this on to her, but even then…

She was most startled when Jaune gently reached out and gripped her hands with his own. "Stop thinking on it too much, Jeanne," he said firmly. "I know you still think it belongs to me… but trust me, Crocea Mors will be far more suited for you than it ever will for me. It was _meant_ to be yours from the start."

"B-But…" She tried to stutter something out, but having her hands gripped by her brother's was making her feel kind of light headed.

"No buts," Jaune said before she could continue. He let go of her hands and ruffled her hair with his right hand. "Consider that an absolute order from your older brother."

"…Heh. "Jeanne could only chuckle a little at that. Despite whatever ways in which he's changed, he truly was the same person at his core. "Okay."

"Good." Jaune smiled at his sister. Then… "Now then… I think it's getting kind of light, isn't it? It feels a lot cooler now than it did before."

This prompted Jeanne to look at the clock that her brother's desk came with and nearly sputtered. It was that late, already?! How?! "W-Whaaaa! H-How can it be this late?!"

She could only watch and be flustered as her brother laughed at her. "Must be late, indeed… even if it's barely the end of the first week, I don't think others are going to let things slide if you end up being late to class."

Oh, her brother definitely didn't have to go telling her that. "Y-Yeah, time to get going!" She quickly got up from her seat and took a minute to make sure everything was still in place. "I'm sorry for keeping you this long, Jaune!"

"No worries, stuff happens," he replied. "Just… Jeanne?"

The girl paused in her movements and looked to her brother. She couldn't help but feel somewhat taken aback by his current expression. It suddenly looked so serious. "Yes?" she managed to say without stuttering. She resisted the urge to pat herself on the back for this small accomplishment.

"…I know I ask the impossible here, but please be careful in the future, okay?" Jaune said. "There's no telling just what you'll end up encountering out in the world."

"…Okay," Jeanne could only say in response. Her brother has never sounded this serious before about anything… so she could only wonder what more his words meant. Nonetheless… she didn't really have time to dwell on it; she had to get back to her dorm and get to sleep, otherwise she won't wake up in time for classes tomorrow. "Well, given I want to be a huntress though…"

Jaune's serious expression softened slightly, a small smile appearing. "I know. But still, at least try."

"Okay…" Jeanne slowly went for the door. "Good night, Jaune."

"Good night, sis," he replied softly.

And then reluctantly, she left.

* * *

Jaune waited for a few minutes after his sister left before sighing.

He couldn't help but feel somewhat bad. For in a sense, he'd lied to her just now.

"'No telling just what you'll end up encountering…'" he muttered, repeating his words from just now.

Truly, what a lie that was. For he had a pretty damn good idea of what sort of things Jeanne would have to deal with in the future. Assuming, of course, he wasn't there to otherwise stop it.

But alas, he had no idea of knowing when or where such encounters could occur. And seeking out the perpetrators of such encounters isn't really an option since they'll do their level best to avoid him. Hence his self-imposed duty of looking out for his sister, that way he could catch them later… though he sincerely wished it wasn't at the expense of his sister.

 _Not to mention the other girl…_

Yes, Ruby Rose. The girl with the silver eyes… idly, Jaune wondered if the young girl had any idea as how significant her eyes truly were…

Given what little he's seen of her so far though, he doubted she knew of their power at all. Oh well.

"Not that that'll stop anything…" he muttered. While he doubted the 'Queen's' pawns are aware of Ruby's significance as well as his sister's, the Queen herself was most aware of it. And that made things so very worrisome for him, especially Ruby had frankly been an unexpected surprise here at Beacon.

Jaune could only groan now in worry and dread. Yet he looked no less resolute than he ever had before.

Just because his new job was going to give him more than a bit of work to deal with didn't mean he wasn't going to do his best in protecting everyone here from everything the Queen will inevitably throw their way.

…He just wishes now that she'll take her time in doing so; he still had to focus on learning the ins and outs of his new job, after all.

* * *

 **And there we go! Don't let the ending there fool you; any and all action (and there will be action, mark my words) you're expecting isn't going to be coming up for a while now. First, I simply plan to take my time establishing a variety of different things, hopefully building up the characters and the likes well before I start dishing out the major fights and stuff.**

 **I sincerely hope you'll look forward to everything I have in store for you all.**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	6. Chapter 6

Started and caught up with the Brynhildr in the Darkness manga. Wow, what a ride it was up until the most recent chapter on Mangahere. In terms of deaths and overall tragedy/darkness, I can't help but compare it to Berserk thanks to the actions of Mako Fujisaki and her powers. And in a weird way, it perhaps outdoes Berserk in terms of death impact in that a vast majority of the characters that die in Berserk tend to be nameless background characters whose deaths merely highlight the horrors of the Apostles… in comparison, the author of Brynhildr sometimes actually gives characters a name, a bit of characterization and then offs them in some sudden and violent manner. While it's damn near simple shock value now (not unlike deaths in Akame ga Kill), it just sort of hits you in the heart should you dare to form a likeness for anyone that isn't a part of the main cast.

Ha ha ha, well that assessment aside, not much else to say everyone. Hope you all have been doing well and will continue to enjoy my fic!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 6

"S-So, of course all of you know about aura, right? About the way it works?" Jaune Arc could be heard saying to the students up in their seats.

Standing in the middle of the arena down below, the new assistant professor could be heard audibly gulping in an attempt to remain fairly calm.

This was something that somewhat amused Glynda, who remained out of sight of the students.

It was now the start of the second week here at Beacon Academy and the blonde woman was feeling a little unsure about how things were going already. She'd been under the impression that while yes Jaune would be teaching as well in terms of unarmed combat, that such a thing would be taking place a little later into the school year, perhaps after a month in order to allow their new hire to fully acclimate to Beacon… and perhaps even vice versa as well given the student body's reception to the young man.

Instead, Ozpin had swung on by hers and Jaune's living quarters at the last minute and informed them both that starting today, Jaune would be expected to start showing his meddle in terms of teaching.

Needless to say, Jaune had panicked.

Also needless to say, she hadn't. That said, that didn't meant she hadn't worried about what could happen. It was fairly clear at a glance that her new assistant was a nervous one, easily flustered should things start tilting sideways. Given how brief of a time they had as well to even discuss this new development amongst themselves, there'd also virtually been no actual time for her to offer him some pointers on how to remain calm and the likes.

As a result, well, she was fairly worried for her new assistant. He may have proven his combat prowess to everyone, especially the students, but starting today it was time to prove his teaching skill to the faculty.

And while they all understood his circumstances – anyone would be an emotional wreck if they suddenly got hired as a professor rather than become a student – it would only provide the young man with so much of an excuse.

For his sake, Glynda hoped he would do well.

So to that end, she opted to have let him take the stage first and kick class off. The idea Ozpin had in mind was to sort of split things up between her and Jaune; one day, it'd be sparring like usual with her taking the reins and the next day during combat class, it would be Jaune's turn to step up and teach.

Watching in silence, the blonde deputy headmistress silently shook her head as the first year students collectively nodded their heads in response to Jaune's question. Can't they remember that he was blind?

As if remembering this, she could see some of the students now about to actually verbalize it, only to be cut off in advance by Jaune of all people.

"That's great!" he said with a bit of a smile, evidently proud to have not somehow screwed it up. It was enough to make Glynda nearly smirk in amusement along with some of the students. Just how could someone so gifted in unarmed combat be so nervous and unconfident out of a fight? "But just for the sake of things, let me just sort of summarize it again… ok?"

A pause. Then… "Aura, as you all know, is sort of a manifestation of our souls. Or maybe an extension… I'll leave that sort of viewpoint thing up to you guys. But no matter how you may look at it, aura is still a sort of… a sort of energy that every living being barring the Grimm have that defines who you are. Even when locked, it still provides people with some level of enhanced defense. After all, just how else could people back then have survived Grimm attacks prior to actually discovering other applications of aura?"

Glynda found herself silently nodding along in agreement with what he was saying. She also took note of the fact that he was sounding more comfortable now. Perhaps the nervousness he usually exhibited thus far was simply a nervousness over how to simply start things – a hesitance to initiate things, in order words.

"After aura is unlocked, it begins to passively strengthen a person – strength, speed, toughness, even your very senses… they all get passively enhanced so long as you don't run out of aura," Jaune continued. "However, as I'm sure some of you should also know by now, aura can also be actively channeled in order to further boost a specific trait, such as boosting your strength so that you can lift more or hit harder for that one instance. Boost your speed briefly so that you can cover more ground. Boost your defense to lessen damage from an incoming attack or accelerate the healing of a cut or bruise. Boost your senses to become more aware of your surroundings… you get the idea."

Jaune paused, his dull blue eyes slowly sweeping over the students, an action that unintentionally made a number of them feel uneasy as his eyes passed over them… or in the case of some students, feel a little red in the face for 'other' reasons, a certain blonde and a certain redhead being among this group.

"But while I'm sure you know that, doing so can sometimes be fairly hard. To simply pour aura into a certain trait can be easy enough, but to do so quickly so that it has an immediate effect and without using up more aura than is necessary can be easier said than done."

Glynda now watched her assistant professor mull something over. She quirked an eyebrow at what he'd do next. "…How about a demonstration, actually? Not really from me… err, circumstances, I guess you could say for that… but from one of you? How about…?"

Jaune tilted his head to the side and his face scrunched up in thought. Although Glynda knew he couldn't see it, she couldn't help but wonder if he could somehow detect the somewhat uneasy glances many of the first years were shooting him. After his sparring matches last week, not many wanted to be even in the same arena as him.

"Cardin Winchester?" Jaune finally said. "How about you come down here, please? And don't forget your weapon!"

Ah, how Glynda wanted to huff at that moment and ask him to reconsider. Although it was barely the start of the second week here, the brown haired teen had started to prove himself to be a bully and a racist towards the faunus. Arrogant and lacking in any kind of good traits so far, Glynda had the distinct feeling that the young Winchester was in for a very rude awakening one day should he continue on this path.

Moments went by as the boy in question went and changed out of his uniform and into his combat clothing, his heavy mace slung easily over his shoulder. He bore a somewhat cocky smirk that was rather sedate as he neared the blind assistant professor.

He didn't even get the chance to say anything when Jaune suddenly turned to him with a smile. "Alright, so let's get started!" He then turned to the class again. "Now then, it is a fairly simple process, but it can be hard for some depending on your level of aura control. All that is needed are two things: firstly, what it is you wish to enhance and secondly, the limbs or part of your body that would need to be enhanced to pull it off. For example, wish to enhance your running speed? First you have to focus on that trait and then begin to funnel aura from your reserves into your legs."

He turned to Cardin, who looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, clearly not buying what he was saying. "So how about you give it a try, Cardin?" Jaune said in a friendly tone. Given his age relative to the first years, it must have felt weird for him to possibly call them by their last names, hence the calling of their first names. While this was something understood by everyone, it still sort of made Cardin here grimace in evident uncomfortableness.

Little did he know, this visible action of his earned the ire of Jeanne, who pouted cutely at the sight. Little did he and Jeanne also know, Pyrrha didn't seem particularly pleased by the brunet boy's action as well.

Sighing loud enough for everyone to hear, Cardin did as instructed. For a brief second, Glynda and the students felt his aura spike before it was slowly channeled into his legs. Then a moment later, Cardin went running around the arena, showcasing a greater level of speed than he had before. By no means could he be considered truly fast, but it was enough for people to see the difference.

When he finished and returned to Jaune's side, he was sweating a little.

"Great job! You have pretty good aura control, Cardin," Jaune complimented. "Now please try channeling aura into your left hand… once you do, throw a punch at the air."

Grunting, Cardin did as told and once again took nearly a minute to do so. When he was ready, he jabbed at the air, his punch fast and hard hitting to a point where if one listened closely enough, a slight sonic boom could be heard.

At this sight, Glnyda could only fold her arms across her chest and huff slightly in approval. For all of the student's lacking qualities as a person and as a fighter thus far, he had surprisingly good form when it came to punching. The deputy headmistress, however, then had the sneaking suspicion that it came from personal experience… he was a bully, after all.

She continued to watch in silence, her slight agitation from earlier when class had started ebbing away quickly. Jaune seemed to have this under control fairly well. Still, she wished she knew what point he was trying to get across with this exercise. Its applications were fairly obvious, but even then just what was his point?

"Now then…" Jaune turned his back on Cardin, stepping forward a bit to the class. "Since Cardin here has pretty good aura control, let me talk about one other application of it: using aura to enhance your weapon. Now, I know that almost all of you do that subconsciously, but I meant on a more fine-tuned level. Like using aura to make the sharpness of a blade even sharper or enhancing the explosive dust within your dust rounds or reinforcing certain parts of your weapons' mechanics so that they don't break under pressure."

As he spoke, Cardin took note of this and slowly grinned. Using aura to enhance specific traits of a weapon? Believe it or not, that was actually more his style; focusing aura on more physical traits had always been a weak spot of his.

But not so for his mace.

With much greater speed than before, aura was channeled into _two_ of his weapon's traits: the sharpness of its spikes and the density of it, making it heavier and therefore able to hit harder as long as he had the strength to make use of it.

Which he did and would now gladly demonstrate.

He'd seen what this blind guy can do so far, at least in the spar against Pyrrha – he never bothered watching his other spars. And when he'd first learned of them, he couldn't buy it at all; they had to be rigged. No way this nervous blond guy could be _that_ good.

And so with this one sneak attack… he'd prove it.

Jaune's back was still turned to him and because of the angle, not many of the students could see what he was about to do either.

Glynda did, but because she'd allowed herself to drop her guard earlier after seeing Jaune's performance so far, she was slow to react.

Jaune remained oblivious. "Now then, Cardin, can you please-?"

That was when Cardin finally launched his attack and when other students began to notice it, it was already too late to cry out a warning, though many tried.

Cardin took hold of his mace with both and skipped forward, swinging his weapon low not unlike a golfer trying to go for a long distance shot. And thanks to Jaune's legs being spread open a fair bit for a firm standing stance, Cardin's mace ended up going in between them and striking his target.

The most sacred place and therefore most forbidden spot of all in official matches: the crotch.

Cardin's mace struck home and everyone immediately tensed up for the inevitable crunch and cries of anguish…

Only for what could be considered the impossible to happen.

Not even Glynda was ready for what happened. Making a sound that was somewhere between a shrill hiss and squawk of utter surprise.

Instead of the sickening crunch and tearing of flesh – aura or no aura, a hit to _there_ is going to make a nightmare inducing sound – what echoed across the vast room was the sound of _steel_ being suddenly _crushed_.

Cardin could only stare with a dangerously slackened jaw at his mace as he pulled it away from Jaune.

...The entire side of his mace that had struck Jaune was _caved in_.

And as for Jaune, he was perfectly fine, though he did feel a slight urge to scratch a sudden itch down there. He'd been so focused on talking that he must have not noticed his pants or something making his 'family jewels' itch a little.

Alas, he resisted the urge and turned to face Cardin with confusion on his face. "Err, Cardin? I know I asked you just to hit something with your mace once you focused aura into it… but just what did you hit?" He asked this in genuine concern; he'd heard Cardin's weapon cave in and could only wonder if the floor or walls had been that durable from the start. After all, just what else could he have hit to damage his weapon like that?

"…the floor," Cardin said in a squeaky voice, his mind still trying to process what just happened.

"Oh, okay. Err, sorry about your weapon then; I didn't think the floor was made that tough… huh, the effort put into making it…" Jaune muttered in genuine amazement.

Little did he know, the looks of amazement being aimed at him from, well, from everyone there.

Glynda, having only lifted her riding crop in time just now, actually dropped it. To say she was stupefied was honestly something of an understatement.

She could only stare as Jaune continued on anyways.

"W-Well then, please get your weapon checked out at the forgery, okay? I-I'm sure they can fix it," Jaune said. And boy oh boy, did he sure hope so; the last thing he wanted on his first day of teaching was a poor student getting his weapon messed up beyond repair at his instruction.

A pregnant pause ensued. Then he continued. "…Well then. For the, errr, last thing to keep in mind: defense. As I said earlier, aura can be channeled to lessen damage from blows. While normally it's much easier to simply channel aura into your entire torso when struck by say a slash to the stomach, it'd be much more effective – though also harder to do – to focus aura solely to the stomach area rather than diffuse it throughout the torso. That way the damage reduction is greater than it would be otherwise."

Another pause as Jaune took this moment to regain his breath. "Now you're probably wondering why I'm saying all of this since it seems so basic, but it could really turn the tide in battles if done properly. Not just in unarmed spars like what I'm supposed to teach you, but also in any kind of spar. Think; with enough training, you could suddenly hit your opponent with three times your usual strength and immediately blitz them with three times the speed later on should you refine your speed at aura control to such a point. If used in such a way, you could really put your opponents on guard since they'd have no idea if your next strike will be much stronger than previous ones or if you'll suddenly take less damage from one of their own. So on that note… Cardin, please focus aura into your chest. Preferably your sternum, if you can manage."

Very hastily and still in shock, Cardin did as told wordlessly… until he realized what the assistant professor's words now implied.

However, he didn't even get the chance to panic before Jaune's right fist suddenly exploded forth and struck him hard in the very center of his chest with the weight of a bullhead sized Nevermore.

The blow produced a deafening and powerful sonic boom and knocked Cardin straight into the wall, embedding him in it. Needless to say, he was unconscious as his aura level dropped to the red for all to see on the monitor above.

As what seemed to be a common occurrence now, the entire room was deathly silent at what happened before their very eyes.

This silence didn't go unnoticed by Jaune, who did an admirable job at panicking only inwardly. He hoped he wouldn't get in trouble for hitting a student, even if it was as part of a demonstration. "So… any questions?" he said lamely.

Still remaining out of sight and with her arms now hanging very loosely at her side, Glynda Goodwitch could only continue to stare in sheer disbelief.

Oh yes, this was going to be a most intriguing year with Jaune around.

* * *

Some time later, one Pyrrha Nikos could only shake her head as the memories of combat class continued to play endless over in her mind.

It was honestly enough to render her completely silent and she wasn't the only either; the rest of her team and virtually every other first year she saw seemed incapable of speech.

However, while most others (as far as she was assuming anyways) likely were speechless out of sheer shock and possibly even some level of fear, she was unable to really speak due to one simple emotion:

Pure and utter _awe_.

Oh yes, the redheaded champion of Mistral felt nothing but awe towards the academy's newest (assistant) professor and for what she believed to be good reason. For in all of her years training and fighting and in general honing herself for becoming a huntress, she'd never once ever been so thoroughly outclassed before.

It was… a very novel feeling.

…And maybe something more if a certain kind of 'heat' coursing through her body was anything to go by. God, she wished she had the chance to be by herself right now.

Alas, she wasn't.

"Ren… did you see that?" Nora spoke up, she and the rest of team JNPR back in their dorm for the day. The auburn haired girl was perhaps the only one not completely stupefied into silence, though even then the normally motor mouth girl was speaking far less since combat class an hour or so ago.

And so far, she'd only been asking the same exact question, which poor Ren had been forced to reply to every time.

"Yes, Nora. I did see it," the boy in question replied, only marginally put off by the repeated question.

Nora simply nodded and then turned to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, did you see that?"

Pyrrha knew that Nora meant well, but as this too wasn't the first time she's asked her this, the redhead couldn't help but inwardly sigh. Just how did Ren do it? A veritable lifetime of practice? She sincerely hoped not, for his sake.

"I did, Nora," she said with a small smile. Then, very reluctantly, she decided to add on. "And… this isn't the first time you asked us that question."

Nora blinked slowly, as if realizing Pyrrha spoke the truth and promptly laughed awkwardly. "My bad… but seriously? Did you guys _see_ that?! He took a hit to the gonads and was still fine!"

In her corner of the room, Jeanne had been sitting there in silence, having been trying to comprehend what she'd seen. At the words of Nora, however, she sputtered slightly.

Seeing this, Pyrrha chuckled slightly at the now slowly changing mood in the room, which made her glad. A brief glance to Ren told her he felt likewise.

"Perhaps he sensed the hit incoming and, ah… reinforced that spot with aura? After all, he was speaking to us about such a tactic," Pyrrha now offered, glad for the shift in atmosphere, able to speak now.

To her surprise, though, Jeanne was the one to respond to her comment. "Actually… my brother didn't," she said.

"Eh, really?!" Nora yelled in outright shock. She gasped dramatically, immediately grasping the implications of such simple words.

"She's right. He didn't reinforce his… 'Arc legacy' at all, he took the hit just like that," Ren now added. He'd been lying down on his bed, but now slowly sat up. "Before you ask, I'm fairly attuned to using aura in the manner he was speaking of, so I can faintly sense when people begin channeling aura into their next attack and the like…"

"And he didn't actively use his aura at all?" Pyrrha asked, amazed.

Ren shook his head. "Not one bit. Whatever protection his aura offers him passively was all he had. That said…" He looked to Jeanne, who stiffened slightly under his cool gaze. "All due respect, you don't seem adept at sensing aura, so how did you know?"

Pyrrha inwardly grimaced. While Ren made a good point and was fairly respectful about it, she wasn't sure he should have just gone and said that to their leader like that. While she will admit – very reluctantly, she must add – that Jeanne is somewhat lacking in skill, the blonde girl was still her partner and they were quickly growing on one another. So to hear the teen go and say that without hesitation felt a little…

Well, nonetheless, Jeanne took the comment in stride, merely blushing sheepishly. "Well, I'm just going by what he told me a few times…. It's tied to his semblance."

"His semblance? How?" Nora now asked, genuinely intrigued. She hunched forward on her bed greatly, as if she was about to be told a great secret.

And while Pyrrha would deny it if asked, she too hunched forward a little in genuine interest. She wanted to learn a lot more about Beacon's new and mysterious hire.

"I'd never seen him use his semblance… no one in our family had ever seen him use it before…" Jeanne began. "But the way he described it was that his semblance unleashes all of his aura throughout his entire body at once and constantly, basically increasing all of his physical abilities. At least, that's how he explained it to me."

"I see… so in that case, he likely can't actively channel aura into one attribute or another without activating his semblance… which would boost all parameters…" Ren muttered, his eyes closing as he thought. "If that's really the case then I imagine he'd burn through his aura reserves fairly fast, no matter how great they are."

"Y-Yeah," Jeanne replied. "He mentioned that too every now and then after training."

"So he's like a super saiyan!" Nora said giddily. "He already has the blond hair, after all!"

That got a laugh from the others, even Ren though his was much more muted compared to the others.

A moment later when the laughter finally died down, Jeanne brought up something else that had them thinking hard. "Still… kind of odd how I've never seen his semblance before." She pouted a little at that.

That got Pyrrha to giggle. "Well, maybe in the near future, we'll all get to see it. Because I'm rather curious about now too."

"Agreed," Ren then commented.

"Oh yeah, definitely!" Nora exclaimed in glee. Then her gleeful smile took on a more wicked quality. "Oh, you think he'll be willing to hit Cardin again with his semblance on? Cause it was fun seeing that happen earlier!"

"Nora…" Ren said tiredly.

"What? Come on, Renny, you know that was a cool punch too!" Nora shot back.

Laughing again as Ren proceeded to chastise Nora, Pyrrha couldn't help but look to her equally amused partner and then to the other two.

While they'd only been together two weeks thus far, the redhead was more than glad to have them as teammates.

Now that said… just when will she have the chance to be by herself? Her rising 'heat' still hadn't quite gone away like last time…

* * *

If someone were to ask any Beacon student what kind of person Peter Port, professor of Grimm Studies, was like, ten times out of ten they'd be told that the man was a very loud, boisterous, and overall lively guy. Such a person inquiring about the professor would also be told ten times out of ten that the man gave the most boring 'lectures' of all time.

However, what such an individual in this scenario as well as virtually all of the students don't know is that the man was quite the observant and sly individual when needed. Perhaps he was this more so than he was lively. After all, after he'd long since left the age of his prime behind, he'd had to rely on more than just sheer brute strength and skill to overcome the stronger Grimm across Remnant.

As such, the large man currently sat in the faculty lounge, casually chomping away at a late dinner whilst reading over something with the utmost seriousness.

However, said seriousness and by extension, his focus, wasn't aimed at the paper he was reading, but rather at the individual sitting a ways away from him.

Jaune Arc. Beacon's newest hire and currently the #1 topic amongst everyone here.

The faculty was no exception to this gossipfest and Peter had granted himself the task of seeing just what kind of person Jaune was.

Currently, the young blind man seemed to be in the midst of a late dinner as well, eating quietly up until Bartholomew came across him and suddenly began to fire away a variety of questions.

Peter watched in silent amusement as Jaune tried to mentally keep up with the lightning speed of the history professor's words. He certainly couldn't fault their new hire for looking so flustered right now.

Nonetheless, now that he's taken the time to truly observe the blond young man, the Grimm Studies professor couldn't help but feel that something was truly different about him.

Most people, even the students here, tended to just take things at face value. How a person acts and looks and speaks usually tends to be enough to get people through the day, with none being any the wiser to whatever it may be that might make others truly different.

However, to those much more skilled and experienced in the world, such things only made up a small amount of what made a person a person.

So whilst he watched Jaune try admirably to keep up with Oobleck, Peter slowly tried to 'feel' for Jaune's aura. The quality of one's aura could say a fair bit about them if it could be detected well enough. And this was something of a skill that was all but required for people who intended on being huntsmen and huntresses for a very long time.

Admittedly, it was a skill that Peter would say he wasn't a master of, but he was something of an adept in any case.

That said… what he was sensing was having the normally boisterous man furl his large eyebrow in confusion. For Jaune's aura felt so very odd indeed.

It was vast, far beyond what he'd ever detected before, hinting at the sheer amount of aura that the new assistant professor possessed.

But quantity was of no importance to the man's investigation of Jaune… no, what had truly befuddled him was just how _pure_ Jaune's aura felt.

Purity was something he'd never detected before in anyone's aura. For while everyone's auras burned brightly to this semi-sixth sense of his, it was always 'tainted' for lack of a better term by various things – anger, jealousy, doubt, worry, anxiety and a variety of other negative or otherwise very powerful emotions. With enough mastery of this skill, it'd be possible to discern how each and every one of these emotions felt through the sensing of aura.

That said, Jaune's aura reflected absolutely none of this at all. It was an oddity that bordered on surreal, perhaps even bordered on outright divinity if Peter had to use another word for it. It was as if, for all of the nervousness Jaune exhibited here and there throughout his time here thus far was nothing more than a show.

"How very interesting!" he couldn't help but mutter to himself. Just how long had it been since he'd last encountered anyone or anything of such mystery? He'd honestly lost track of time. For sure, however, it might've been just as long since he'd last had a truly desperate fight, but that was another matter entirely…

Well, getting back on track, if there was one thing he could gleam from this newfound knowledge, it was that Jaune, for all of the mysteries that surrounded him, wasn't a direct threat to Beacon Academy nor to any individual here for that matter. No way someone with such a uniquely pure aura could ever be an active threat to anyone alive.

And to Peter Port, that was perhaps what mattered the most.

His curiosity satiated for the time being, he let loose a surprisingly calm and quiet chuckle before returning to his meal and to his paper at hand.

* * *

Far beneath the headmaster's tower, in a room known only to a select few amongst Beacon's faculty and to a select few across the entirety of Remnant, someone stirred so very briefly within her comatose state.

Something was here. Something was here. Somethingwasheresomethingwasheresomethingwashere.

These words flitted with sudden and ever increasing speed across her mind, which was only barely capable of noticing anything around her.

But it certainly was capable of finally noticing the newest presence to Beacon. And that was all that mattered.

Very, very, _very_ slowly… the woman in the chamber began to stir.

A threat to her had appeared. As soon as she could do so, it must be eliminated.

* * *

 **So what do you think, guys? If it feels like things are somehow moving a little fast with that ending there, don't worry! All part of the plan, I swear.**

 **Sorry for taking so long to get this up too; had a busy but otherwise fun weekend with family and the likes. This upcoming weekend will likely be the same, so chances are I won't be getting around to working on the next chapter until maybe the end of next week… depends on how fast I am at finishing the next chapter to my original story – which I intend to hopefully start tomorrow.**

 **Other than that, not much else to say!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	7. Chapter 7

Can't believe it's already chapter 7 of this fic! And that it already has this many favs and follows! It literally hadn't occurred to me within the past few days that the number of favs and follows this fic has exceeds my previous two! Seriously, you all freakin' rock, never let anyone attempt to tell you otherwise!

Now concerning the story, things will finally be picking up a bit, but again I reiterate that things won't really be in full swing for a while longer. Hope you will all enjoy the many surprises I still have in store for everyone, the characters included.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 7

Nighttime had fallen, the moon so clearly visible in the sky. A peaceful quiet had descended over Vale, with only some light chatter among the night-crowd of the city.

It truly made for a peaceful and perhaps even wondrous sight to behold.

A shame that one Emerald Sustrai was unable to appreciate it.

"Hurry up and move faster!" she commanded, not quite yelling, but also not exactly saying it quietly either.

Some of the White Fang grunts that had come under Cinder's employ sighed at the girl's rather bossy attitude, but otherwise said nothing. For in their eyes as annoying as Emerald could be, she was far more tolerable than the lackadaisical Mercury and the racist Roman.

Emerald sighed as well as she leaned against the wall. Currently, she and a very small platoon of White Fang soldiers had raided a low-key Dust shop, the young woman using her semblance of mental illusions to make the Dust shop owner believe it was just another quiet night. This allowed the White Fang soldiers to sweep the entire shop without much worry, taking all of the usable Dust they could manage and sneaking it off to the massive truck they had parked in the back alleys.

The teal-haired girl grimaced, however. While keeping one person, a civilian at that, occupied with her semblance was laughably easy, maintaining it for long periods of time would eventually strain her and slowly but surely she could feel that limit approaching. Just how long did it take for all of the Dust to be moved?

Just why was she doing again, too? Oh right, the oh so 'great' Roman got busted and it fell to either her or Mercury to pick up where he left off… and they both had to grudgingly admit that the man was a skill criminal indeed, to be able to rob Dust shops and the likes blatantly in either the daytime or night whereas here she was inwardly worrying over cleaning out some minor shop that few would ever even pass by.

Still didn't make her like the man one bit. She hoped he was getting shitty food and equally shitty service in general at wherever he was being holed up at.

"We're finished. We'll be starting up the truck right now," one White Fang member, an older looking man with goat horns, grunted out to her.

"Finally…" Emerald muttered. She'd been getting very tired of waiting. Pushing from off against the wall, she ushered the grunt away with a light wave of the hand while keeping eye contact with the Dust shop owner.

While her semblance had quite the range on it and eye contact wasn't really necessary, being in closer proximity to her target made it easier to mess with their perception of reality. Still, better safe than sorry; until those guys finally warm up the truck, she'll have to remain here with this guy.

Thankfully, the wait was mercifully short; not even fifteen seconds later, she faintly heard the truck engine switch on.

So it was on that note that she then manipulated the man's mind into thinking he had to use the restroom, causing the Dust shop owner to immediately cease his current actions and promptly walk to the bathroom, muttering under his breath about his badly aging bladder.

Once he was in and she heard him lock the door, Emerald quickly ceased using her semblance and silently bolted for the truck.

Like a gazelle, she moved with tremendous grace and it took the White Fang goons who'd already gotten in the truck a few seconds to finally start driving off, her action having captivated them momentarily.

It was honestly enough to make the young woman scoff. Had they allowed themselves to be distracted a moment longer, the man inside the shop might've very well left the bathroom to check on the front and see all of his Dust gone. That would've been troublesome.

Now as they all drove off back to their temporary base of operations, Emerald could only sit in the back of the truck with her thoughts to entertain her yet again, not all of them good.

Cinder had taken the enigmatic blond man's interference rather personally and already she was trying to figure out his identity. Mercury was being forced into helping out with this endeavor as well, the young man being used to discreetly ask around Vale to see if anyone by chance may have recognized the blond man under the guise of 'being tasked with delivering something to him and not having a proper number to call him with,' or some such nonsense, the kind that no average person would really question.

And on that front, there was little luck. All that could be ascertained about the mystery man was that he evidently didn't originate from this kingdom given the lack of a record for him in Vale's various databases.

And although she'll never admit it to Cinder, Emerald couldn't help but feel on edge about this guy. Having grown up living a harsh life on the streets, she's long since come to learn that any seemingly thing or person could come to have a surprising impact on whatever she may wish – or need – to do. And that was the sort of vibe she was picking up from this new enigma. Especially since by taking down Roman – and so damn quickly too – he'd already caused a bit of a hiccup in their plan. Perhaps not by much, but still it was noticeable.

"Better safe than sorry…" she whispered to herself most quietly.

Holding back the sigh that threatened to follow, Emerald leaned back within the truck, wondering all the while just what the future would hold for them now.

* * *

The following day, as the sun finally rose, Weiss Schnee could only sigh as she got up, already dreading the day that was to come.

The heiress will admit that while things were slowly going better between her and her teammates, there was still a ways to go before she would ever consider them a 'true' team by any definition of the term. Not to say that they weren't right now or anything; in their more private training sessions, Weiss found herself pleasantly surprised by their increasing coordination and more casual banter. Truly, if nothing else, her time here at Beacon thus far was surpassing her original expectations in a variety of ways.

But alas, while she will admit to all of this, there was one thing that she wasn't looking forward to.

And that would be the ever continuing talk of one Jaune Arc, new assistant professor to Glynda Goodwitch and their new hand-to-hand combat instructor.

When she'd first laid eyes on him, the heiress had found him lacking in a variety of respects and if only based on how he'd conducted himself. He'd been nervous, unconfident, and a bit of a goof with how he ended up facing the wrong way when first speaking to the class. Having always been big on first impressions, Weiss had found herself far less than enthused or impressed by him…

..Up until his spar with Pyrrha only moments later that day. It was almost as if she'd been watching an entirely different person. For during that spar, he'd been almost the exact opposite of before, being calm, composed and carried about him the air of a skilled fighter. Having held Pyrrha Nikos' skill in very high regard, Weiss never would've imagined the Mistral regional champion being so utterly outclassed in combat.

This dissonance between Beacon's new professsor's demeanor in and out of combat was simply so great that it'd taken her up until now for her to finally reconcile them both, having refused to believe his show of skill up until now.

…As she went about getting ready for the day ahead, ignoring her teammates' morning antics as they got up as well, Weiss had to silently admit that her refusal of Jaune's presence as a professor was rather childish of her given the following spars he'd had with other and more skilled students. Though it hadn't quite helped endear him to her when he seemed to be the only thing the entire student body seemed willing to talk about. She'd come here to Beacon to learn how to become a great huntress, not to figure out whether or not Jaune Arc wasn't secretly a hyper-advanced android or demigod or otherworldly being as some people now believed him to be, especially after his 'display of adamantine toughness' against Cardin Winchester.

She was especially unamused by the more… dirty talk a number of girls (and guys) could be heard having regarding the young man, said people having no care to lower their voices much during such moments. This was made even worse by Yang, who'd taken to saying things recently such as 'he's got balls of STEEL!' and 'I guess that's his _real_ weapon!' and 'think he'd demonstrate its power for us?'

Seriously, this was an academy meant to turn them all into professional huntsmen and huntresses! Can't the students take things a bit more seriously?!

…Well, the seemingly never-ending gossip of Jaune Arc aside, Weiss could say she no longer had much problem with him being a professor so long as he lived up to whatever standards the rest of the faculty certainly must have for him.

Now with that all aside, the heiress could now look forward to the next activity: a trip into Forever Falls, which was to take place tomorrow. She's read up on the eternally red forest and had found it a most interesting place, if only due to its unnatural color and seeming popularity with some of the students, if the little excited chatter she's heard about it was true.

While unaware of what exactly they'd be doing in the forest, Weiss was somewhat hoping it'd make for a good chance to stretch her legs and possibly even get away from all of the chatter about Jaune for a while. After all, with the forest having a not unreasonable number of Grimm populating it, even the more gossip-driven students should be willing to take things a bit more seriously until out of the danger zone.

"Hey Weiss Cream!" Yang suddenly said, finally stepping out of the bathroom after fully freshening up. As always, her teasing smile filled Weiss with a muted sense of dread, no doubt another horrible pun incoming. "Ready to start the day with a _Yin_ _Yang_?" The blonde even went as far as to spread her arms wide as if to silently say 'get it?'

Weiss internally screamed to high heaven. She sincerely prayed for tomorrow to come even faster now.

* * *

Back at Ozpin's tower, a meeting between just himself and Glynda was occurring. And while it was nearly microscopic, their normally calm expressions carried a tint of worry.

"Do you think it could've been a trick of our eyes?" Glynda asked the headmaster.

"I never took you for the type to say such hopeful things, Glynda," Ozpin replied as he stood close to the all glass wall of his office, looking out to the sights beyond yet not actually seeing anything. His mind was too preoccupied.

Far earlier today, before dawn ever came about, the two of them had been woken by their scrolls letting out a fairly quiet yet still noticeable beeping sound. It'd awakened them both quite well at the time in spite of how early it was due to what it meant.

Far below the tower lied a room in which one a very special individual lied in a comatose state. This person – a young woman – had suffered fairly serious injuries in the past, but alas that hadn't been what'd put her in a coma. No, what had done so was something of a nature they couldn't discern just yet. All that could be confirmed was that the young woman's powers, great as they were, had been diminished significantly, drained…

…Which meant that somewhere out there in Remnant, there was someone running around with a portion of the Fall Maiden's power.

Truly a scary thought, to be sure.

But this was all old news. Ever since taking her in for her own safety, Ozpin along with Glynda and two others had taken up the duty of guarding the Fall Maiden as best as they could whilst also subtly researching ways to try and fully bring her out of her current state.

And it was on that note that it now came to their current 'problem' of sorts; they'd set up their scrolls to constantly be fed updates about the young woman's vitals in case of any changes. And just earlier as they'd been so suddenly awoken… it seems as if such a change had occurred.

Said change had been minute, so much so that the beeping message from earlier could've easily been the result of some kind of glitch or false alarm. Yet earlier when both headmaster and deputy headmistress had bolted for the secret room under the tower, they'd perhaps seen something that confirmed their immediate suspicions.

It'd been incredibly slight, but the Fall Maiden's skin had regained just a touch more color from before, the young woman's breathing which was normally assisted by a respirator looking a bit more relaxed in nature, as if she was regaining a bit of strength. Her vitals, which had always looked to be just a few steps away from outright plummeting, now looked a tad bit more stable, a little less worrisome than before.

In other words, it would seem their protectorate was slowly beginning to recover now.

"Do you think Amber will wake up?" Glynda asked, a slight sense of hope about her.

"We can't be so certain, I'm afraid. While it's clear that there had been some changes, the changes were still far too minor for me to start getting my hopes up," Ozpin said as calmly as he could. Having put his usually present coffee mug down on his desk, he turned momentarily to retrieve it and take a sip. His coffee had cooled, but he seemed to either not notice or care. "But if she does wake up, well, that raises several questions…"

"Such as what? How she came to be here? How had she lost some of her powers and even her aura? Who exactly her attackers were?" Glynda theorized, thinking of questions that Amber would be thinking of to ask as well as mainly ones to ask her.

"You're forgetting one more." Ozpin's eyes narrowed slightly. "Just what had caused this sudden shift in her recovery?"

Glynda remained quiet in the face of this question as its implications slowly began to hit her.

Indeed, for all of the time that Amber had been in their secret care, she'd never once shown any sign of recovery, not of body nor of her powers. Yet it isn't until now that there appeared to be some kind of shift in her current status.

…Now that Ozpin had gone and brought it up, it seems worrisome, enough to bring a truly nervous expression to the normally unshakeable deputy headmistress.

"Do you think the cause of this shift is a good thing?" she then asked the headmaster.

"Possibly… to be honest, anything that could potentially awaken Amber is a good thing, considering our only other alternative…" he muttered in response, his last few words causing Glynda to slightly wince.

If Amber had been unable to awaken at all, then for the sake of protecting Remnant from the likes of her unknown attackers, they'd have had to transfer all of her aura – therefore, all of her Fall Maiden powers – to someone else… a process that would kill Amber.

So now that they took the time to think on it, whatever was the cause behind this sudden shift could be immediately considered a good thing. Both of them had committed many acts in the 'grey' area of morality during their lives, so being potentially spared this last resort was a weight off of their shoulders.

Alas, that didn't meant they could just leave this be. While both of them were grateful for this shift, they still had no idea what could've triggered it or what sort of side-effects, if any, it could have on Amber.

However, before Glynda could then bring this up, Ozpin interrupted her. "Well, for the time being all that can be done is to monitor her status much more closely now, seeing as the source of this shift is still a huge unknown. Besides…" He now sat down, grabbing absentmindedly at a bundle of papers that had been dropped off at his desk just prior to him heading to bed yesterday. It was enough to make him sigh. "As things currently stand, we both still have quite a bit on our plates to deal with. If we tried to identify the shift's source now, we'd be unable to fully dedicate all of our efforts to it."

Glynda now sighed, agreeing with the headmaster. "A valid point." Most valid, indeed, seeing as tomorrow she was to personally oversee a trip to Forever Falls with the first year students. The only good thing about that is that Jaune would be there to assist her in chaperoning. In spite of his blindness, he seemed most capable of keeping track of people so that would be most helpful indeed should any students encounter something beyond their current level to deal with.

"Well then, time to get to work, I suppose," Ozpin muttered as he began to look briefly through the papers now in his hand. He held back a grimace. No matter how many years he's been doing this, the paperwork involved in the beginning of the school year was always plentiful and a major hassle.

"I suppose so too…" Glynda said. Bidding the man a silent goodbye, she slowly left the room to go attend to her own matters.

Yet no matter how much she tried otherwise, the sudden shift in Amber's health couldn't help but weigh constantly on her mind. And for this to occur now of all times…

Truly, this school year was to be a most eventful one.

* * *

As the day now began to swing on by, Lie Ren allowed himself to go about it all in his usual calm manner.

Or at least, this is what he attempted to do.

While he hid it very well from his longtime friend Nora and from the rest of his new team and friends, he was honestly feeling a little bit… antsy. Tense. On edge.

He would never claim to have a sixth sense of any kind, but in this case, he'd almost be willing to say otherwise.

Over the past few days, the raven haired young man couldn't help but feel a sort of disturbance about the area. Not simply Beacon Academy, but literally the entire area that the academy resided in, this ominousness stretching well out into the forestry where initiation had taken place and even further beyond.

For lack of a better way to put it, it was almost like some sort of calm before the storm, an energy silently building up to a bursting point as time passed. And yet… Ren couldn't explain not even to himself how he knew this. He just _knew_ , kind of like how people in general know they're able to breathe the air without trying.

…It wasn't the most pleasant feeling, all things considered and this showed in how his hands, which had been lightly clasped atop his desk, slowly tightened their grip while Professor Peter Port droned on. It was an unconscious action on his part and one he'd noticed only a moment after. He counted his lucky stars that Nora had been too preoccupied with doodling in her notebook to notice this. The last thing he wanted to was worry her. A happy and rambunctious Nora meant for a good day despite how tired he may always appear – and feel – to be whilst trying to rein her in.

Well, that being said though… surely he couldn't be the only one who could detect this unnerving sensation, right?

Briefly glancing all around from where he was seated, he noticed nothing out of the ordinary, no one looking particularly tense over anything. With only the exceptions of Weiss and Pyrrha (diligent note-takers), Nora and Ruby (diligent slackers in this class), everyone else seemed ready to fall asleep if the professor kept droning on anymore.

Which he most definitely will; Peter Port was simply that kind of guy, after all.

Appearing to be the only one on edge, Ren had the very brief thought that perhaps it could simply a bad case of nerves…

…yeah right. No way a bad case of nerves would last this long, let alone be severe over seemingly nothing. There had to be _something_ out of the ordinary going on, but what that was will likely remain unknown to him until things are too late.

He just hoped that whatever it is, it wouldn't be anything too extreme… it was far too early in the year for a lax guy like him to have to put in a lot of effort.

* * *

Currently going for a little walk around the academy's perimeter, Jaune couldn't help but sigh. While thankfully today was going to be a day for Glynda to take charge of the combat class, he couldn't help but feel nervous nonetheless.

However, the nervousness he felt now was different from the clumsy type of nervousness that he usually felt during more social situations.

No, it'd be more appropriate to say that this kind of nervousness was perhaps more suited to a battle-like situation.

 _Things are slowly beginning to come to a head…_

Yes, that's right. It'd been so very slight, so microscopically so that he'd nearly missed it at first. But alas, he hadn't.

Just last night, he'd detected something well beneath the headmaster's tower, though what exactly was unknown.

Still, he could hazard a very good guess.

 _A maiden…_

One of four women granted incredible power by an old man, power so great that the common folk of Remnant would likely label it as magic should the maidens' collective existence ever become more well known.

Something that Jaune would prefer to not happen; it'd only bring the four women far more trouble than what they likely already deal with. Especially since they were hardly the strongest in the world…

 _Far from it, perhaps._

Nodding his head thoughtfully in light of this thought, his walking slowed to a near crawl as he took this moment to stretch.

"I wonder if I should speak to them about it…" Jaune muttered to himself, not particularly worried about being heard; he'd made sure to take advantage of his 'sight' – his Aura Vision, he's decided to call it for now – to make sure that no one was heading anywhere near his general direction in advance.

He wasn't sure why the maiden's aura had suddenly spiked so briefly like that, but it'd honestly worried him due to how weak it'd look. The maiden must be severely injured in some manner. He hoped she'd make a full recovery.

…That said, he wasn't dumb; the spike was possibly due to him and given his 'circumstances,' this was likely the sole reason for it. So he can't imagine the maiden being particularly happy to see him if or when she crossed paths with him.

…So perhaps it'd be best to go to Ozpin or Glynda about this? Ask them to maybe act as middlemen for them? But given the maiden's apparent location, Ozpin and Glynda were likely sheltering her from something, so approaching them about this now would only cause unnecessary tension…

 _It'd be best to wait a while longer, gain their trust more…_

Yes, that was very well the only option he had at this point, at least if he wanted to continue to remain here at Beacon in one piece.

And he could already tell that his presence here would soon be truly required; while he couldn't see anything with his Aura Vision, he could still 'feel' the disturbance building up in the distance.

Yet again another unfortunate side-effect of his presence here.

"If I remember right, tomorrow we're going to Forever Falls…" he muttered to himself, rubbing the back of his head in slight worry. That was where a number of Grimm resided and he could literally feel them getting worked up already.

Well, despite not being able to 'see' them, the Grimm wouldn't pose too much of a problem to him, but to the students, that'd be a different story. He'd have to stick close to the class as much as possible to ensure their safety.

…Not that they couldn't take care of themselves, of course; he'd observed their spars under Glynda's ever careful eye and could tell that quite a lot of the students had some considerable potential. None more so than teams RWBY and JNPR, of course and with good reason in the form of their leaders…

Though chances are, the young leader of the former team likely can't access her true power yet and probably won't for quite a long while… a bit of a shame.

And then there was his sister, who'd yet to even discover her semblance… combined with her average skill level, she'd be the one to worry over the most, but that'd be no problem since he'd be watching over Jeanne the most anyways.

Ah, Jeanne. How much potential she had, how deadly Crocea Mors could be in her hands as compared to his own. There was a reason why he fought barehanded nowadays as opposed to using a weapon, much less Crocea Mors. And there was just as much of a reason for why the family heirloom was far better suited to her than anyone else among his immediate family. But alas, it'd be some time before his sister could discover her true power as well.

Now picking up his walking pace again, Jaune began to make his way back towards the academy.

* * *

It was yet another peaceful and even quiet day all throughout Vale, and Cinder hated this simple fact with a passion that burned almost as intensely as her flames.

Currently holed up in her little base of operations, she was awaiting a call from Adam Taurus, a high ranking member of the White Fang as well as one of its most skilled operatives. Normally communication with the White Fang was left to Roman to do as the man had a far better idea of how to coordinate thefts – a fact that she'd never say anywhere near the damned man, his stupid ego too much to tolerate at times – but with the man still incarcerated, Cinder had taken up this duty in addition to her other self-imposed ones.

While she'd been spending the past several days trying to dig up dirt on this mysterious blond man that had taken out Roman, she honestly hadn't found very much. Admittedly, she'd been unable to make out any particular facial features of the man from afar and surveillance footage that she'd managed to obtain likewise made identification hard since it didn't quite show all of the enigma's features.

Still, it was clear that he was young and it'd given enough details for her to run a trace to absolutely no avail. As far as this kingdom was concerned, the young blond man didn't exist on record, meaning he either had no record at all or he simply came from another kingdom. The latter being the far more likely explanation, it'd take quite some time to see which kingdom he came from and figure out the man's name, but Cinder was patient enough to wait this out. She'd already gotten some people to even do the searching for her.

So with this one thing now running its own course, she was left waiting for the White Fang's reply instead, something that she found herself having far less patience for. Ever since Roman's capture and the subsequent heists carried out by Emerald, the White Fang have started to grow a little more bold in demanding things from her in return in addition to not quite being as sharp on the ball on things. Apparently while Roman may have been a 'racist piece of shit' according to a number of the members from the terrorist group, he was a pretty firm leader who knew what he was doing even when plans went flying out the window. Emerald, despite her own fairly high level of intelligence and expertise, lacked the same kind of forceful impact that the cane-wielding criminal had. Though many White Fang grunts seemed to tolerate and even like her far more than they ever did Roman.

That said, now more than ever their help was required. The small Dust heists that Emerald had been carrying out simply weren't cutting it anymore. While the heists were small risk, they also yielded small reward since the amount of Dust obtained wasn't particularly much compared to before. According to the deadline she herself had set, there wouldn't be enough Dust to load onto the train, not in time for when most of the students and teachers would be away from Vale on missions.

As such, a far bigger risk was needed and it had presented itself fairly recently; the Schnee Dust Company being the biggest Dust manufacturer in all of Remnant, they were naturally the most likely target for any kind of heist, but for quite some time now their security measures had been far too tight to take that kind of risk.

Until now, anyways.

Through the use of hackers and moles, Cinder had chanced by some interesting information; turns out that in about a week's time or so, a very large and special shipment of Dust was to be sent to Vale's port. Given its low-status yet its importance, this was perhaps the one time the SDC's security measures wouldn't be impenetrable. From what Cinder could gather, they planned to ship in the Dust in plain cargo containers, essentially disguise it as simple products rather than the veritable goldmine that it truly is. Naturally, in order to not draw attention to it, it'd lack any kind of guards and simply rely on the several video cameras that the port had in order to keep an eye on the shipment.

The cameras could be easily dealt with for several minutes or so, but moving all of that Dust with only a small group would be impossible. More manpower was needed hence her call to Adam. Alas, it sure was taking him a long time to negotiate this with the leaders of the White Fang, those old bastards no doubt starting to question why they bother aiding her, her threats to them notwithstanding. She may be able to provide them with key information on various important figures and weapons to some extent, but these things could only get her so far with them.

For the sake of their continued help and for her plan, a big payoff was needed and that currently depended on how many people Adam could get for her to use for this heist of hers.

Pursing her lips in growing frustration, Cinder could only do what she'd told herself long ago that she'd never do again:

Hope for the best.

* * *

All throughout the land around Beacon Academy, from the forest where initiation was always held all the way to Forever Falls, the Grimm stirred.

For a while now, they'd all been feeling a certain presence, one that had lightly tickled their danger sense for a bit.

But now that this presence clearly wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon, said presence began to grow stronger, weighing more heavily on the Grimms' senses.

At first, it'd only been the smaller and weaker Grimm within the forest that had been affected, having made themselves fairly sparse during initiation as they went into hiding. But then a few days later, the larger ones had started to become affected.

And as of now, even the ones that had made Forever Falls their home had started to become more and more rattled.

It cannot stand. This presence's continued stay at Beacon cannot stand. If it remained any longer, they may very well crumble beneath its might.

Therefore… at some point, they had to strike out at it and try to drive the presence away. If they didn't, then in due time…

…The Grimm all throughout the area seemed to shake their heads in unison, this one action demonstrating far more intelligence and unity than any other action by them that had ever been observed by anyone else.

The dark beasts knew, albeit instinctively, what was to come, but didn't want it to happen. They weren't ready yet.

So it fell to them to try and stall it somehow.

So the Grimm shuffled about through the forests, doing so with far more purpose than they had ever demonstrated before.

But while they did so out of a growing sense of primal fear, they also did this with another emotion underlying it, one that none of them had quite realized the existence of just yet:

Excitement.

* * *

 **And so the plot thickens! Hopefully in ways that none of you can quite guess at just yet; I really want to try and blow the socks off of all of you with everything else still to come!**

 **And apologies all around for the delay in this chapter's posting; had a busy but otherwise fun week that prevented me from writing too much.**

 **That said, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter to make up for the delay.**

 **So until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	8. Chapter 8

What a time it's been so far! Got my hands on Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator, mainly just going through story mode for now… and I can't help but be blown away by all of the little plot twists so far! To those of you who've gotten the game as well or are keeping up with its story through other ways, I think you know what I'm talking about! Got to love Guilty Gear!

And oh man, the Sony conference… looks like in the future, I'm definitely going to have to get a PS4 in order to play God of War, RE7, and Spider-Man. Crash Bandicoot as well, depending on what else is revealed of it in the future. Oh and Hideo Kojima's new Death Stranding as well! What a time to be alive…

…On a more serious note though, to my friend **JauneBlackSmudge** , I hope you and your family are doing well. Don't know if it seems appropriate to put this here given the timeframe and all, but nonetheless, hope things will be okay, man.

Now onto the chapter.

Chapter 8

Nora was in heaven. Sticky and yet oh so sweet and tasty heaven, in the form of a thick liquid substance traveling hotly down her throat and eliciting moans of unfettered pleasure.

And this sounded as wrong to her as it would to anyone else not aware of the context.

"W-Wait, don't eat all of the sap!" Jeanne exclaimed worriedly.

Nora merely grinned unapologetically.

Today, virtually all of the first year teams had been taken on a little trip to Forever Falls, now known to the auburn haired girl simply as 'Forever Heaven' in order to complete a simple and otherwise silly task: to find and collect several jars of sap for each team. Apparently, the sap from the trees here in this purely red forest was quite handy for a variety of things, hence the collecting of it.

However, all teams had been told to come prepared in their combat outfits and with their weapons at the ready; supposedly this forest wasn't exactly devoid of Grimm, so they had to be prepared for possible attacks. It was also made of note that this sap was apparently quite attractive to a certain species of bees so that was yet another thing to watch out for.

However! The Queen of the Castle had a solution to this!

Picking up yet another jar that Ren had quietly filled, Nora prepared to chug all the sap within. After all, no bees can come after them if there was no sap to attract them! It was genius!

Alas, it seemed her teammates disagreed with her.

"N-Nora, waaiiiittt!" Jeanne said in ever growing worry. Evidently the blonde leader was worried about failing the assignment. Given that the one in charge of this trip was none other than Glynda Goodwitch, Beacon's strict disciplinarian, it was understandable for the blonde to feel fear. Nora also supposed her brother's presence here as well – the blind young man having also accompanied them – also had an effect upon Jeanne. After all, nothing like impressing the one you like, even if it was only sap being collected.

As for Pyrrha and Ren? They simply were diligent students.

"Nora, it'd be pretty hard to pass if we don't have any sap, right?" Pyrrha said to try and dissuade her, nonetheless looking amused.

Nora, just holding the jar slightly away from her mouth, inwardly scoffed. It'd take more than that to stop her-!

"No more syrup for your pancakes if you drink that," Ren calmly said, the young man not even turning around to look at her.

"…" Nora paused for exactly 3 beats before setting the jar. Ren had targeted her most vulnerable weakness! What a fiend!

From behind her, her other two teammates sided with her betrayer, however, sighs of slight relief (more than slight in Jeanne's case) escaping them. It was enough to make Nora start feeling slightly gloomy.

"Good save, Ren!" Jeanne said to the young man.

The sole male of team JNPR hummed in acknowledgement and thanks of the praise and kept on doing what he was doing, dutifully collecting the sap.

"And what about me?" Nora then asked, playing up her sadness now. Might as well try to wring some sympathy out of them for stopping her valiant efforts! She adopted a slightly teary eyed expression. "Wasn't I helping by keeping the bees away?"

"E-Er…" Jeanne was at a loss for words, the girl having also been collecting sap – trying to; couldn't find a tree with any in it – paused in her actions to look at Nora nervously.

Alas, Jeanne's cute expression of loss was enough to make Nora burst out laughing, unable to hold up her façade. "Just joking~"

She watched Jeanne's shoulder's slump, the girl unable to believe she'd fallen for Nora's acts. Again.

Pyrrha and Ren both chuckled but otherwise said or did nothing else. The playful teasing Nora engaged in against Jeanne had become fairly routine and its lightheartedness made for some good fun, even for Jeanne afterwards.

With really nothing else left to say or do, however, Nora decided to return to her original 'post.' Due to how spread out all of the teams were, it was up to each team to come up with the best ways to go about collecting sap whilst keeping themselves save. With her and Pyrrha being JNPR's best fighters, they'd been delegated politely by Jeanne to guard her and Ren while they collect sap to fill their many jars.

That said… it was a painfully lax position; they'd already been here in Forever Falls for a good twenty minutes or so and no one has yet to see a sign of anything even remotely dangerous. Which made for a rather boring time, time with her team aside.

Oh well, the trip wasn't over just yet. Maybe something fun will happen later?

Nora honestly couldn't wait to find out.

* * *

From a far off distance, various Grimm circled the entire area in which the students (and the two chaperones) currently occupied. Their intelligence low as it was on both a collective and individual level, the Grimm still retained enough mental function to feel genuine nervousness and excitement, trying to figure out the best way to go about this.

Their numbers made up of Beowulves and Ursa, with only a few Boarbatusks among them, they did instinctively realize they had the number advantage, but not so much the power advantage; for the presence that had been washing over them felt very strong indeed.

With the students and the other one also there, it'd be a task of the highest level to truly drive the presence away before 'that' could start happening. Nonetheless, it must be done.

It was nowhere near time yet for 'that.'

So very slowly now, the small waves of Grimm now began to approach.

* * *

Glynda Goodwitch sighed, this time around not from stress. While making sure all of the students returned alive and in one piece was certainly a cause for concern, the red forest was proving thus far to be surprisingly devoid of those fearsome beasts of darkness. Normally, such a level of quietness would be worrisome, but these were Grimm, hardly the most intelligent beings around, at least the 'grunts' of the species.

It helped her mood too that she had someone else here to help her should things somehow start going south.

"Something wrong, Glynda?" Jaune Arc asked from more or less beside her. Currently, the two of them were walking through the forest, making sure to form a sort of patrol route to make sure that the students were doing their tasks from afar whilst also making sure no enemies of any kind approached.

"Not quite, Jaune," Glynda said calmly. "Merely enjoying the breeze."

"I see." Jaune smiled. "Same here."

The young man beside her having long since insisted on being called Jaune, the blonde deputy headmistress had indulged him in this and had in turn decided to allow him to simply call her Glynda. She must say, the informality of it all was rather refreshing. She knew she could be a stern person and that this was cause for many to be very formal with her, but it would seem that her young assistant was not quite as affected.

She supposed it helped that he was blind; after all, hard to be wary of her perpetually stern expression if he couldn't even see it.

Both of them then fell into a pleasant silence, simply taking in the sounds of the forest and the students fulfilling their task with varying levels of effort and enjoyment. As they both continued to walk, Glynda could feel her usual grimace slowly be replaced by the most microscopic of smiles.

Despite her original worries, it would seem that this trip was off to an acceptable start. She'd honestly worried over whether or not the area was safe or if the students would take things seriously in spite of the dangers of Grimm and the like. The deputy headmistress found herself most happy to see that her worries may have been unwarranted.

Out here, surrounded by the beauty of Forever Falls, perhaps she could allow herself to forget for now all of the other things that had been stressing her out – lessons planning, meetings, Amber's condition…

"Hmm?"

Glynda's thoughts were interrupted when Jaune suddenly hummed. "What is it?" she asked, her smile fading rapidly. Jaune's hum had been one of slight confusion.

"…Could've sworn I heard something," Jaune began. He then scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "But it was just a snapped twig from over there…" He pointed in the direction of one team of students. One of them had been mulling about and unintentionally stepped on a large twig that had fallen to the ground.

"I see." Glynda silently let out a breath she just realized she'd suddenly been holding in. "You gave me a very slight scare there, Jaune."

"Sorry," Jaune muttered in genuine shame. "You seemed so peaceful there too for the moment…"

Ah, and there he goes again. Making observations that otherwise shouldn't be possible given his lack of sight. Granted, she's heard of some blind people developing much sharper senses of hearing and smell to compensate, but she ruled this out in regards to Jaune; after all, there was no way such senses could allow him to detect a person's mood of all things, yes?

"Well, you're not wrong about that. I was in a peaceful mood," Glynda replied, her small smile now returning, not as small anymore. "But given the circumstances, there's nothing wrong with being so quick on the uptake. We are in Grimm territory, after all, lack of them aside for the time being."

"…Yeah." Jaune now looked a little happier now, evidently pleased to see that she wasn't annoyed.

Again, this couldn't help but puzzle the blonde woman a fair deal. Just how could a young man so skilled and sharp in combat be so shy and eager to please in social settings? He was almost like a puppy with how he seemed to act sometimes.

"As long as you keep that mind…" she ended up saying, inwardly chuckling at Jaune's firm nod.

Truly, it seems like with this young man around, it seems that this year was going to be a fun one.

* * *

Neopolitan was many things. To try and list even half of them would take longer than most would be willing to listen to.

However, in this current situation, the small and mute woman would be content in describing herself as an excellent sneak.

For currently aboard an Atlas transport ship, she casually snuck across the entire place with all the grace of a gazelle.

The guards and the rest of the crew aboard said ship honestly posed little threat to her, even with their numbers. However, this wasn't a time for mayhem, not when it could possibly result in her friend being caught in the crossfire.

Said friend, of course, being none other than Roman Torchwick.

She'd been gone for a few weeks, having been kept busy by some other business concerning Roman's illegal profits at the far end of the kingdom of Vale and as a result she'd been out of the loop when Roman had been taken into custody. It sure had made for a hell of a surprise upon her return just a few days ago.

Poor guy, she was sure by now that he was dying in whatever cell they threw him in, not from any kind of prisoner mistreatment but rather from how dull and drab everything here seemed to be in the eyes of the self-proclaimed 'king of criminal fashion.'

Well, time to rectify that – letting out a silent giggle, Neo twirled Roman's cane, Melodic Cudgel, with his signature hat atop it.

It'd been a bitch and a half figuring out where her friend had been holed up at and when he'd finally be moved to Atlas for better containment – God bless the slow workings of the legal system – but the mute criminal had finally managed to sneak aboard the ship just prior to its takeoff and now she headed for Roman's cell. She'd already swiped a particular keycard off an unsuspecting crew member, one with the access to the man's cell, and now she was simply taking her time navigating towards said cell due to two things.

First and foremost being the crew aboard. While she could practically dance all around this ship with her eyes closed without being caught by the naked eye or by a camera, it still required patience and the willingness to move at a snail's pace at points. As such, it was only natural for what would've been a ten minute walk to take easily twice that amount of time if not more.

Secondly… well, the ship hadn't quite reached the point of its travel that she'd been waiting for. Having carefully snuck into the cockpit to see what kind of route it was taking here in the sky, Neo had managed to estimate a good point for her and Roman to jump out of this ship with little physical repercussion for either of them. Due to how last minute her breakout attempt was, she'd been unable to procure any mode of transportation, so she and Roman would just have to make a literal run for it once they hit ground.

Or rather, make a swim for it upon hitting the water; this ship was traveling to an entirely different kingdom after all.

So with that all planned out as best as possible, Neo couldn't help but traverse the ship to her ultimate destination with just one thought now coursing through her mind:

Just how in the hell did Roman get captured?

The official hadn't stated how he'd been subdued – it may have said that a huntress took him into police custody, but it didn't actually say it was the huntress that took him down in the first place – and she highly doubted that flame using bitch and her two humpty-dumpties would give her much info on the matter if she'd gone to them, if only to spite her for no reason.

So.

Instead, she was left with only one other person to ask: the man himself. Once she frees him, naturally. Hell, now that she really thought about it, she might not even need to ask Roman a single thing about his capture; he'll probably start prattling on all about it once they were out of here and could afford to catch up. It also wouldn't surprise her very much at all if the man then decided to get some payback; he could be rather petty that way.

And besides… in the criminal underworld, things like this can do bad things for one's reputation. If Roman wanted to remain a key player, then he was going to have to wipe the slate clean somehow.

Oh and just speak of the devil…

"Finally back, huh?" Roman muttered quietly as Neo finally reached his cell. Looks like her thoughts had passed the time much more quickly than she'd expected. The man actually smiled. "Boy, am I glad to see you, Neo."

Neo let out a silent giggle and used the keycard to open his cell. The instant she did so and the cell door began to open, she immediately thrust forth Melodic Cudgel and his hat.

Roman eagerly accepted both as he stepped out, still dressed in the dull prison uniform they'd thrust onto him.

"Already have a way off this thing?" he then asked of her.

Neo smirked and did a little motion with her hands.

"So it's going to be a rough one, huh…? Well, I can live with that. Need the exercise after being stuck in there for so long." Roman's smile now turned into a delighted a smirk. "Lead the way."

Neo obliged him dutifully and happily.

As they both ran off before anyone could come along and notice, the diminutive criminal couldn't help but smirk as well.

The criminal duo were now going to be back in business.

* * *

Jeanne inwardly suppressed a sigh of both fatigue and frustration with great effort. Despite a good half hour having already passed since the start of this assignment, she's yet to find a single tree that not only yielded sap, but also more than just a few measly drops.

"This is going to take forever…" the blonde girl muttered sadly, hefting her jar up, which was so marginally filled that from a slight distance it'd look empty.

Shifting her gaze somewhat to her team, Jeanne couldn't help but then take stock of things.

Ren was expertly moving from one tree to another, easily poking holes in them and filling his jars up to the brim with sap. He clearly wasn't having any trouble with this task.

Nora was walking around to the west of her, Magnhild at the ready as the auburn haired girl skipped about, looking only slightly bored. The way her eyes appeared to be scanning the area immediately around her, it was clear that she was looking for Grimm to smash.

And then there was her partner, Pyrrha Nikos, most badass girl that Jeanne could say she knew and easily one of the best students already among the first years. Unlike the more energetic Nora, Pyrrha looked quite professional and alert as she patrolled the area to the east a bit, Milo and Akouo at the ready.

It was enough to make Jeanne smile a bit, to know just how great her partner – and friend – was. Aside from her obvious want to make her brother proud of her, she wanted to be just like Pyrrha.

It was on that particular thought that she went back to sadly gazing at her near empty jar. She knew she was lacking in a lot of skills, but she hadn't been expecting it to be this bad.

Alas, there was only thing that could be done about it: improve.

Easier said than done, of course, but it was all that she had to go on.

"Hmm, maybe I can ask my friends and my brother for help?" she whispered to herself, looking most thoughtful as she decided to stroll a bit more towards the south, a little ways away from her team.

She'd done this unknowingly, her mind so preoccupied with her current train of thought. Likewise, none of her teammates noticed due to them currently focusing on their specific roles.

Because of this one simple, even innocent, mistake, Jeanne was most unprepared for the sudden rustling of a nearby bush.

Nearly yelping in shock, Jeanne dropped the jar and it landed hard on her foot. Despite being more or less empty, it was quite a heavy and sturdy jar.

"Owie!" Jeanne bent down to immediately start rubbing her foot, comical tears forming at her eyes.

The bush rustled again, however, and immediately grabbed her attention.

Looking up, she saw nothing, the rustling having ceased.

Gone was the almost pouty expression on her face; what replaced it now was a look of complete seriousness that contrasted with her otherwise innocent and cute looks.

Remembering what lessons about the Grimm she'd learned from either her family or from others, Jeanne slowly began to back away, back towards her team. She didn't dare call out to them just yet, at least not until she knew for sure if this was simply a false alarm. Nonetheless, her left hand slowly went for her shield, currently in its contracted form.

A bush considerably farther away than the first one rustled now and the blonde's attention immediately switched to that one-.

-Leaving her open to the Beowulf that suddenly leapt at her from in between a pair of trees.

* * *

Blake, having been in the middle of collecting sap alongside her own team, couldn't help but perk up when a scream suddenly split the otherwise collective silence of Forever Falls.

She wasn't the only one to have heard it too.

"What was that?" Ruby couldn't help but ask in concern. "You think someone suddenly got attacked?"

"Sure sounds like it, sis…" Yang said, the normally upbeat blonde brawler looking a little worried as well.

"Well, if that really is the case, then surely whoever it is can fend for themselves. After all, the rest of their team should be by their sides, anyways," Weiss said with only a slight huff. She evidently still held people to a rather high standard.

Honestly now, that was one of the things Blake couldn't help but inwardly dislike about the heiress. While the Schnee heiress was slowly yet surely getting nicer to others, sometimes a rather unlikeable trait would make itself known. The way she words things like this, it sometimes sounds like she doesn't care about other people.

Nonetheless, Blake held her tongue, but not simply because she didn't want to argue with Weiss though; just now, she heard movement as well.

A fair bit of movement that couldn't possibly belong to any of their classmates – the steps were too heavy.

"Guys…" she began slowly now as she stood up. Unbeknownst to her, her cat ears hidden under the bow twitched furiously in anticipation. Thankfully for her, none of her teammates noticed this. "Something's coming."

Yang quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side, as if doing so would allow her to listen better somehow. Beside her, Ruby did the same. "You sure, Blake? Cause I'm not hearing an-."

That was when two Ursas charged out of the large bushes nearby.

* * *

All throughout Forever Falls, the Grimm finally began to make their move. The peace and calm that the students had been enjoying thus far on their trip had caused them all to lower their guards dangerously.

And the Grimm, having slowly circled around the entire area until now, had finally taken advantage of this mistake.

Their forces made up solely of Beowulves and Ursas for now, they immediately went in, moving with speed and precision unlike anything they've demonstrated against humans and Faunus before.

But perhaps most terrifyingly of all, they moved with purpose. Something that the soulless creatures have never shown themselves to have.

The attacks now occurring upon the students were merely a distraction, however…

…For they had a far bigger fish to fry.

Homing in on him like a beacon, the majority of the Grimm headed for the one they were truly after.

* * *

What had once been a peaceful stroll through the red forest had come to an abrupt end once the screaming started and the bullets started flying.

The instant this happened, Jaune inwardly swore. He knew he should've kept a closer eye on not just his sister, but on everyone else as well. The lack of Grimm initially should've been a massive indicator that _something_ had been about to happen.

Should he have used-? No, perhaps it was better that he hadn't used it at all. It'd have stood out, to say the least and he'd like to keep his abilities under wraps as much as possible. Information could swing the tide of a battle after all, so keeping one's cards close to the vest could work wonders.

Alas, he was allowing himself to get distracted. That wouldn't do.

Especially when a small army of Ursa now charged wildly at both him and Glynda.

He had to say, he was most surprised to hear his colleague and tutor of sorts swear, but under the circumstances, it was understandable that even she would 'cut loose' a little on the language.

And on the fighting as well; with just one graceful wave of her riding crop, a wave of purple energy made itself known, reducing the entire wave of Ursa to little more than smoke in under a second.

Only for the fallen Grimm to be replaced by yet another wave, this one noticeably more coordinated than the previous one. Due to lacking aura, Jaune couldn't actually see this, but through hearing and the vibrations in the air and ground, he was able to detect the new wave split apart while a third wave appeared as well, aiming directly for them.

The Grimm were trying to perform a sort of pincer maneuver.

This didn't surprise him at all, for the Grimm were far more intelligent than what everyone else gave them credit for. Even if said intelligence was really due more to instincts on overdrive rather than actual brain power.

The same couldn't be said of his colleague though. "What?!" Glynda actually exclaimed from beside him, her focus disturbed for the briefest of instances due to the shocking sight before her.

This didn't stop her, however, from waving her riding crop again and blasting the entire wave coming for her away.

While impressive, it didn't stop the waves coming at them from the front nor the wave directly aiming for Jaune from his side.

Not that it mattered much; Jaune was on the move now.

One Ursa had managed to somehow outrun the rest, reaching the blind young man first. Or rather, it'd be safer to say that _Jaune_ had reached it first; the young man was simply that much faster.

And as he calmly pierced its skull with just the focused tips of his fingers alone, he couldn't help but feel sad for a number of reasons he'd never tell anyone.

Promptly kicking away the Ursa's body before it could fully dissipate, he listened as it slammed into several other Grimm, knocking them back for the time being.

"Jaune! We need to check on the students!" Glynda yelled over the now unending roaring and shrieking of the Grimm as they continued to suddenly pile on. With deft waves of her arms, great yet precise amounts of aura were expended to eradicate the Grimm or otherwise manipulating the very earth below them to raise walls to ward off the others that she couldn't immediately attack.

"Then we could both break through the swarm and-!" Jaune began to reply, only to be cut off when a Beowulf tried swiping at his side. A swift dodge and an overhead blow put an immediate end to that.

"No! There's no way for both of us to break through!" Glynda replied. "I'll hold these ones off! You go and round up the students!"

Upon hearing those words, a part of Jaune really wanted to argue that point, but he stopped himself from doing so. Glynda was more than powerful enough to keep all of these Grimm at bay. Hell, given enough time, she could kill them all off, if only enough to ensure a peaceful retreat.

And besides… it was clear as day to him who their target really was…

"We'll see later, then!" Jaune cried out before dashing off at top speed, bowling through the Grimm that had been approaching him as if they were pins.

After stomping down one particularly large Ursa that had been near the rear of the entire wave, Jaune's eyes began to narrow as he shot through the forest.

In hindsight, it was inevitable that something like this would happen given his presence here. Still… the few times this has happened in the past, there'd never been this many Grimm gunning for him, let alone with this kind of coordination or ferocity. That Glynda and him will be too swamped by their numbers to try and get a call out to anyone else in Beacon spoke volumes of just how many Grimm were in the area right now.

Which, also in hindsight, could only mean one other thing…

… _Progression._

Indeed, that had to be it. In all honesty, not much of a surprise to him, but it was enough to incite the flames of worry ever so slightly in him. He couldn't help but pray now that the Grimm wouldn't feel tempted to directly attack Beacon upon his return to the academy.

Screams disrupted Jaune's thought process and he immediately slowed. Turning his gaze in the direction of said screams, he could see four people – evidently a team of students – trying to swing and shoot wildly at the Grimm, whom he couldn't see. The team's aura on both a collective and individual level were still quite high, but from the way they were staggering about, it was clear they were taking some nasty hits.

Not anymore on his watch.

In all honesty, he didn't want to do this, but…

 _Time to fight._

His gaze hardening, Jaune switched his original direction and now headed for the students.

* * *

Cardin Winchester was a few things, a bully being among them as well as a racist. However, one wouldn't quite be able to add the word 'coward' to that list.

For as scared as he inwardly felt, he refused to turn tail and run in the face of the truly massive Ursa before him.

Not like he or his teammates could run away even if they wanted to; a small squad of Beowulves had expertly surrounded them, leaving enough space in between themselves to avoid hitting one another, but not enough for any of the teens to safely make a run for it if need be.

Cardin grunted as he used his mace to block a heavy swing from the Ursa before him, his form buckling under the Grimm's incredible strength. Didn't help that he had only used the one hand on his mace to block in the first place.

Nonetheless, he managed to bring up his other hand to it and push the Ursa back albeit not easily. The massive beast staggering slightly from surprise now, Cardin saw an opening and swung his mace right at the Grimm's elbow.

Hearing a crack followed by a pained howl, the leader of team CRDL allowed himself a sneer of triumph, but it didn't last; the huge Ursa now just looked really damn angry.

Said anger was made almost painfully obvious when the Grimm swung its other arm out and struck Cardin from his peripheral blind spot, sending the tall teen sailing through the air.

Crying out in pain when he landed on the ground, he then immediately rolled out of the way when one of the Beowulves tried stomping down on his head. As he did so, he could hear Dove fire off some rounds from his gunblade to grab the Beowulve's attention, just enough to give Cardin more time to get back on his feet.

In a display of surprising teamwork – CRDL wasn't really known for team-plays of any kind – both Cardin and Dove immediately dashed forward at the stunned Beowulf and swung both of their weapons at once, Cardin aiming for its exposed throat while Dove slashed with all of his strength at its stomach.

Both attacks hitting their marks, the Beowulf could only let out a weak gasp before dying, its form dissipating into the air.

Neither teen had the chance to feel good about themselves though, for three other Beowulves now left their little circle to lunge for them. Thanks to having a speed advantage, the three Beowulves were immediately able to press Cardin and Dove back, the two unable to do anything but defend as they warded off the wild swings coming their way without end.

"Damn it!" Cardin couldn't help but roar as the three Grimm forced him and Dove back in the direction of the Ursa, who was currently being kept busy by Russell's agile movements. Off to the far side of this little was Sky, who was in turn trying to cut down the Beowulves, who were being surprisingly smart about fighting the final CRDL member, dodging his bullets and swings.

"God damn it!" Cardin roared now. Was this how things were going to end for him and his team? Being killed by Grimm fodder this early on in their lives and the school year?

He couldn't help but feel enraged at this thought, but that rage was immediately extinguished and turned to a cold fear when one of the Beowulves finally managed to slip past his defenses and slash him across the stomach.

It was just a minor attack, the claw of the Beowulf slashing only lightly at the small area unguarded by his armor. But the sheer sharpness of its claw and its surprising strength was enough to draw blood in spite of his aura naturally protecting him.

And it was a fair bit of blood too if the amount now splayed onto the Beowulf's claw and Cardin's armor were anything to go by.

Stumbling back, Cardin's eyes widened when the same thing happened to Dove by his side, another Beowulf managing to pounce upon him and taking a small bite out of his right bicep, eliciting a shriek of intense pain.

From behind him, Russell finally made a miscalculation in his movements and the Ursa, annoyed at best by the mohawked teen's dust daggers, finally delivered a powerful shoulder charge that sent the teen flying towards Cardin and Dove. Of all the team CRDL members, Russell's aura reserves were the lowest and it showed when it briefly flashed red upon hitting the ground. He had little aura left. Another hit or two like that and he'd be completely empty.

As for Sky, the young man tried to ward off the Ursa that now came his way, but in doing so he turned his attention away from the Beowulves. A mistake as they then slashed viciously at his back, enough to keep him from doing anything from the charging Ursa, who now knocked the stunned teen down.

Cardin had turned and seen this all play out as if it was in slow motion, the actions of the Grimm and his teammates moving at a snail's pace.

Sky now getting hefted back and thrown by two of the Beowulves, all four members of team CRDL were together as all of the attacking Grimm now began to approach them.

Cardin opened his mouth and tried to speak, to say _anything_ , but to no avail at all. His mind had gone blank as his teammates had been knocked down and his muscles now began to lock up as all of the Grimm here slowly approached them, the closer they came, the smaller the openings were between each of them.

Whatever chance of escape they might have had earlier vanished as the circle shrunk in and tightened around them.

This was it… the end of the line.

They were going to die. They could keep on swinging their weapons around as much as they want, but with the Grimm herding them in this tightly, there was no way they'd be able to avoid hitting one another as well.

His eyes moving to his teammates, Cardin could see the realization of all of this in their eyes as well. Their weapons, still grasped in their hands, now clattered to the ground, their hands shaking far too much now to properly wield them.

And as the Ursa now stepped forward first and raised its massive right paw up to attack, each and every member of CRDL closed their eyes and prepared for the end…

…Only for it to never come.

The pained and then gurgled cry of a Beowulf had been what caused them to open their eyes again in an instant.

And they did so just in the nick of time to see one of the Beowulves closest to the Ursa fall to the ground, its jaw twisted in such a way that it was clearly dead now. Its body dissipated before it could even fully hit the ground.

That was also when CRDL noticed _him_ for the first time now.

Professor Jaune Arc, their unarmed combat instructor.

His back turned to team CRDL, he stood before the Ursa, whose attack slowed from the shock of what had just happened.

Only it wasn't due to shock at all; team CRDL's eyes widened when they realized a split second later that Jaune hadn't been standing still – he'd already attacked, his left fist rammed into the Ursa's exposed gut, puncturing it.

Then with only the slightest of grunts, Jaune suddenly turned, pulling his left fist out and using it to grab hold of the Ursa' outstretched arm. Tugging on it and kicking at its now shaking legs, he lifted the huge Grimm right off its feet and into the air directly above him.

Again, time seemed to just slow to an unbearable crawl for team CRDL, but none more so than Cardin. It'd been slight just now, but he'd gotten a glimpse of Jaune's face, of how utterly fierce it looked. It wasn't the look at all of the bumbling yet kind blind man he and the other students were – it'd been the look of a beast in human form, just barely able to hold back from going all out.

Although Cardin wouldn't admit it aloud, he considered it a miracle that he didn't wet himself in fear right there and then.

Time seemed to move again at a normal speed and Cardin and his teammates could only watch as Jaune now let go of the Ursa's claw and suddenly moved, whatever he did being too fast for their eyes to follow. Yet somehow, he seemed to have flipped the Ursa in midair so that its back now faced the ground.

Then with one swift move, he grabbed hold of its upper body and swung it downwards to the ground at even faster speed than anything he's demonstrated before… the back of the Ursa's neck smashing into the knee that he had just now lifted at lightning speed.

A sickening crack resounded throughout the area, making all of team CRDL and even the stunned Beowulves violently flinch as Jaune's strike utterly _shattered_ the Ursa's neck, killing it instantly.

One of the Beowulves, when it flinched, accidently chipped the ground with one of its foot claws, the sound grinding on the ears of team CRDL…

….As well as alerting Jaune to its exact position.

As the blind professor pivoted and shot forth to the Beowulf in question, the other ones remaining growled in equal parts fear and determination as they all now threw themselves upon Jaune.

And as Jaune immediately began to fight back, team CRDL could only watch in silent and completely unmitigated awe and fear.

For they were seeing, however slightly, just the sort of person Jaune truly was in battle.

* * *

All throughout the forest, the terrified screams of the Beowulves Jaune was now fighting could be heard.

And this in turn prompted them all to roar in unison in a mixture of rage and terror.

For the person they had wished to otherwise drive off was no longer a person at all to them.

* * *

 **So what do you think, guys? Is this still having you all pumped for what will happen next? Heh heh, I sure hope so, for I have a boatload of surprises still in store for you all!**

 **And apologies to the lateness of this chapter too… the past few days here in southern California (and from my understanding, all of the US) had been unbearably hot, making it hard to focus on anything during that time.**

 **God, how I hate summer and to think it's only just started… damn.**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care.**


	9. Chapter 9

And so it continues, this very much unwanted summer… Ah, you guys have no idea how much I loathe summer. My only solace so far is that for the past several days, it's been fairly cool. Of course, it won't last, but it sure doesn't stop me from wishing that it would last all year long, these cool days. Oh well.

Aside from my hatred of summer, not much else going on in my life aside from work and VERY, VERY slowly yet surely looking around for a better job… how discouraging. Though to be fair, I'm hardly a particularly motivated enough person to take initiative so I only have my own self to blame.

Heh, anyways, onto the chapter!

P.S. Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out. Had a few things to tend to in addition to this chapter being considerably longer than usual.

Chapter 9

Jeanne's combat prowess was certainly lacking a lot when compare to other freshmen, a fact that everyone including the blonde herself knew very well.

However, while she was substandard when standing next to the likes of her teammates, that didn't mean she was completely incompetent at fighting.

When that first Grimm had lunged at her from out of nowhere, she'd been able to instinctively leap to the side to avoid its attack, even freeing her shield from her side and activating it to further protect herself from the Grimm. It had been by a measure of both some luck and some skill that she had been able to bash her shield into the beast's side just as it had passed, knocking it away from her slightly.

This had been something that had occurred just a few minutes, her also instinctive shrill scream at the time having managed to alert her nearby teammates – as well as several other teams due to how loud it was – to the now sudden onslaught of Grimm.

And with her team now at her side, Jeanne could say that she was only on the verge of wetting herself in fear rather than completely overcome with horror at the sheer number of Grimm surging out of… well, everywhere, it'd seem.

"Eat this!" she heard Nora scream giddily, the auburn haired girl spinning like a top before Magnhild smashed right into the side of a large Beowulf, knocking the Grimm clean off its feet and into a small crowd of other Beowulves that had tried to approach from the side. It had only succeeded in knocking them all down, but that quickly changed when Nora switched Magnhild into its gun form and blasted the small group to oblivion with a quick grenade shot.

To Jeanne's left, just several feet away, was Pyrrha, the redheaded regional champion expertly moving among two Ursas. Using Milo's gun form, she shot exactly four rounds, two into each eye of one Ursa while then taking the time it staggered to parry a huge paw from the other one before retaliating with graceful swing of Milo as she effortlessly switched it into its Xiphos form. She then switched it into its javelin/lance form and thrust it forward, the now long weapon pushing the wounded Ursa very far back due to its length.

As for Ren, Jeanne could see him out of the peripheral vision of her left eye, the young raven haired man stabbing a Beowulf to death with the blades on his Stormflower. After it died and dissipated, he then roundhouse kicked another Beowulf that had tried to bite him and followed it up with an unrelenting barrage of bullets as it stumbled.

As for Jeanne herself? The girl was currently engaged in a blade/paw lock with an Ursa of all things.

Thankfully it was a fairly small Ursa, but it was still quite strong and its great weight bearing down on her wasn't helping things at all. Due to how it'd suddenly tried to attack her, she'd accidentally used her sword to counter its swiping paw instead of her shield.

Grunting in exertion, Jeanne knew that attempting to overpower the Ursa was a futile thing, but thankfully an idea came to her then and there. While there was a fair distance between her torso and the Ursa's – nearly out of her arm's reach – it was still possible to reach out and touch it and she did so…

…with her shield. And with as much speed and strength as she could muster.

The shield bashed into the Ursa's stomach with some force, not enough to budge it back, but enough to grab its attention and divert some of its efforts from the clash. This gave Jeanne enough time to take a brief step back before then jumping forward. With a fierce cry that contrasted with her waif-like face and figure, she swung Crocea Mors with all the strength she could muster at the Ursa's neck-.

-And watched as her blade successfully decapitated it.

Bereft of its head, the Ursa naturally died… but as its body began to disappear into nothingness following the swing, a Beowulf pounced at Jeanne from directly behind the Ursa, using its still disappearing body to keep itself hidden until the last possible moment.

It worked, for Jeanne could only gasp in surprise right before impact. Both she and the Grimm went sailing through the air a good several feet before hitting the ground hard. Jeanne was most thankful that the crash and ensuing tumble ended up with the Beowulf being thrown off of her.

But it only bought her a second's reprieve at best; the Beowulf had already recovered and made for her again. She immediately tried to stand up and move away, but only got up on one knee by the time the Beowulf reached her again, intent at ripping out her throat with its sharp teeth. A hasty block with her shield was enough to stop this and even disorient the Grimm – Jeanne can embarrassingly say that hitting the shield headfirst really hurts thanks to a personal experience – enough for Jeanne to fully stand up and kick it away.

"Oof!" She couldn't help but groan out. Being a fairly clumsy fighter in general, she'd kicked the Beowulf back awkwardly, nearly hurting herself more than she had probably hurt it just now.

Still, in doing so, she was able to give herself a few seconds to catch her breath and try to assess the situation.

From the looks of it, her teammates had been spread further out due to the number of Grimm encircling them all. Thankfully, it seemed like the number of Grimm coming their way was steadily decreasing, with plenty of the dark beasts rushing past this area entirely to go elsewhere.

However…

Pyrrha, for all of her talent and training, was slowly being pushed back as three more Ursas now showed up, boxing her in and keeping her from using her superior agility and Milo's gun form to her advantage.

Ren, having about an average amount of aura, was already beginning to visibly tire in the wake of the never parade of Beowulves that seemed to be gunning solely for him. Were they all simply coming from one direction, he'd have probably been able to keep them at bay solely through running and gunning, but alas these Beowulves were smart; some would try to attack from his front, whilst others would rush at him from his right, forcing him towards the trees and bushes. Whenever he got too close, one or two more would rush out of hiding and attempt to hit him, only failing due to a combination of his reflexes and Stormflower's blades.

And as for Nora, she'd also been surrounded, the two Ursas and the many Beowulves making up this rapidly forming circle being too close for her to fire off any rounds without the explosion hitting herself, yet with only a few moving forward at a time to keep Nora from using Magnhild's hammer form for crowd control.

As far as she herself went, Jeanne was probably the luckiest of the bunch – for a certain definition of lucky. Because of the much greater focus the Grimm were putting on her teammates, she only had to deal with the stragglers of the bunch in more or less one on one battles. However, most of these 'stragglers' tend to be larger and stronger than most of their brethren here and were fresh, having bypassed everything else in favor of just going for her.

The Beowulf she'd kicked just a moment ago had gotten back on its feet and now eyed her viciously. But it didn't move towards her; no, instead, the wolf-like Grimm seemed to slowly move from side to side, watching as she shifted her guard to accommodate its constantly moving position.

Something was seriously wrong here. The Grimm shouldn't be this… this smart! They were all far too coordinated and using actual tactics against them. Combined with their sheer numbers, it'd only be a matter of time before she and her friends are completely overwhelmed.

"I'm the leader here!" Jeanne muttered to herself harshly. "Come on, think! Think!" She had to do something!

Because if she didn't… then she and her team will end up paying a dear price.

* * *

Glynda was an excellent huntress, her abilities well above even the lofty norm of accomplished huntsmen and huntresses. This was something many believed about her and what she also believed about herself.

However…

…Even the greatest can be brought down if the enemy vastly outnumbers her.

Such as now when one surprisingly small Boarbatusk was able to somehow slip past her constant waves of attacks and defenses to nearly skewer her on its right tusk. It was only thanks to her well trained reflexes and instincts that she was able to avoid the attack, albeit not quite completely; as the Boarbatusk now passed by and fell victim to her immediate counter attack – in the form of a focused blast of aura from her riding crop – its tusk was able to graze her side a little, enough to draw some blood.

Hissing only slightly from the sharp pain, Glynda was only marginally affected by it, having taken far worse during her adventures earlier in life. Still didn't make it hurt any less.

It also still didn't stop her from using her semblance to make the ground all around her promptly cave in, sending a plethora of Beowulves and Ursa falling into the newly formed pit.

Then with a wave of her arms, the ground she'd ripped apart and moved to make the cave-in was immediately levitated into the air and sent spiraling down upon the now trapped Grimm at Mach speeds. They all barely managed to let out a collective cry before the attack killed them all.

Sighing in slight weariness and ever increasing frustration, Glynda took a moment to rub her forehead, trying to make sense of this situation.

As she did this, one of the now few remaining Beowulves that had avoided the cave-in leapt over the wide pit to get to where Glynda was at, standing atop what amounted to a pillar of earth thanks to her earlier efforts. It tried to swipe at her as it closed the gap, but without even looking in its general direction, Glynda slayed it instantly, lashing out physically with her riding crop with enough force to destroy its head.

Glynda sighed again. There weren't too many Grimm left gunning for her now, with plenty of others passing right by this area to head elsewhere. Time to clean this up and go check on the others as soon as possible.

Spreading out her arms and closing her eyes, her concentration reached a level of such intensity that the very air around her visible rippled from the effort.

To the remaining Grimm, this was the warning sign to run away.

Alas, they weren't fast enough to do so.

Glynda's semblance worked its way on them all, lifting all of the remaining Grimm more than several yards into the air. Many of them roared in surprise, others in anger, and even some in what appeared to be worry. It mattered not to Glynda what – if anything – the Grimm were feeling and it showed in her intense expression.

Then she thrust both of her hands into one another and now all of the levitating Grimm, still so very much under her semblance's control, did likewise and with immense speed.

All at once, the 20 or so Grimm left, consisting mostly of Beowulves and Ursas, smashed all together into one big ball of black mist as the sheer force of their collision wiped them all out.

Promptly dispersing the black mist all over the area with a far more casual gesture now, Glynda opened her eyes to survey the area. Needless to say, in just very short order she'd made swift work of the Grimm that had swarmed her initially… and with only a very minor injury to boot.

But this did very little to make her feel better. Just the opposite in fact. For if this many Grimm had come after her and Jaune, then just how many Grimm were the students being forced to deal with right now?

She may have tasked Jaune five minutes or so ago with the duty of going to help and round up the students, but now that she's gotten rid of the Grimm here – odd; a number of them had run off not long after she'd sent Jaune off – she could afford to take a more active role now.

Using her semblance yet again, she broke off some of the ground pillar she was standing on and levitated it – with her still atop it – into the air and across Forever Falls at a slow pace. Reorienting herself, however, the now levitating bit of land began to pick up some speed as she turned towards the northeast area of the massive red forest, for that was where most of the students had gone off to collect sap from.

As she moved along, taking in a bird's eye view of the forest below, Glynda could hear dozens of Grimm roar out in rage and… fear?

Her already fierce looking eyes narrowed even more behind her glasses. Something amiss had just occurred, it would seem.

And whatever it was, it was sending the Grimm into an odd kind of frenzy.

And like hell she'll let either of these two oddities harm her students anymore.

The speed of her levitating ground increased a little more as she thought this. Time to end this situation before it escalates anymore.

* * *

Ruby used her speed semblance to effortlessly rush from one spot to another all around the area, giving the Ursas chasing after her a very hard time keeping up with her.

Realizing that the dense forestry in this area made using Crescent Rose in its scythe form rather impractical yet also making it that much harder for Grimm like the Ursas to move about freely, the leader of team RWBY had opted to become both a distraction and a mobile cannon.

She demonstrated her latter self-imposed role by taking aim at two Beowulves that had unintentionally lined up and shot just one round at them, the bullet piercing through the throat of the one in front before doing the same to the one right behind it.

The Ursas roared in indignation at what she'd just done and while they were incapable of catching her, their roars of fury were still enough to make her unconsciously gulp in worry.

She'd wanted to become a huntress because that was what her mom had been. She'd wanted to become a huntress because huntsmen and huntresses got to go around saving people and that was the right thing to do…

…But now being faced with so many Grimm, the normally so-called 'fearless' Ruby Rose was feeling fear for the first time. She'd fought plenty of Grimm in the past as part of her training, but mainly Beowulves and even then their numbers had been nowhere near this great, with three more Grimm popping up for every one that she and her friends put down.

Like spiders bleeding out of the walls in an old run down house…

Shivering slightly at that kind of icky thought, Ruby made the mistake of slowing down a bit… which in turn allowed a Beowulf to silently pounce upon her from in between two trees nearby. It was only thanks to her instincts and quick reflexes that the young girl was able to duck under it in time to avoid damage.

Yelping as she did this, Ruby then bolted off at full speed, the sheer shockwave from her run being enough to uproot some of the trees and bushes nearby whilst also blasting the Beowulf back.

She looked back just in time to see something shocking though – one of the Ursas reaching out to grab the launched back Beowulf and put it down so that it could join its brethren.

A Grimm had saved one of its own…

Just what the heck was going on here?!

Ruby's thoughts were interrupted – not for the first time – by a vicious round of gunfire, courtesy of Blake who now popped up near her after shooting down several Beowulves with Gambol Shroud's gun forms.

"Just how many of them are there?" Blake muttered, more to herself than to Ruby.

Ruby, not exactly the smartest in regards to conversation and the like, even among battles, still ended up answering the question anyways and truthfully so. "Dunno… but definitely more than we could probably handle."

She watched as Blake grimaced. The grimace remained as she then switched one of her weapons into its katana form and cut down a tree, resulting in it falling back and landing on top of an Ursa that had tried to come at them from the south. It didn't kill the bear-like Grimm, unfortunately… but it managed to stun it and keep it pinned down for the time being.

"Weiss and Yang are off over there in a more open area," Blake then said, looking all around them cautiously for another attack. "Thanks to how both of them operate, they're doing pretty good keeping the Grimm at bay, but there's no telling if more won't show up to overwhelm them."

Ruby then took that moment to look back in the direction she'd come, seeing the Ursas and the Beowulf off in the distance yet surely covering more and more ground right now. They roared as they saw her gaze at them and seemed to visibly double their efforts to get to her and Blake.

Ruby quickly turned back to Blake. "Then we should all regroup. I know you and I originally wanted to stick here in this area to get some of the Grimm's attention on us, but if there's really a lot more of them, then we'll all need to work together as a team."

Blake nodded – and then her eyes immediately widened in surprise.

Seeing this, Ruby meant to ask what was wrong, but then her instincts screamed at her to move. She obliged by jumping as far as she could to her left, careful to avoid jumping into any trees. Blake did likewise as well and just in the nick of time as a Boarbatusk had come charging right out of the bushes near where they'd just been.

Missing them, it let out a feral cry of what appeared to be disappointment.

And this only caused Ruby's eyes to narrow in confusion. Just what was going on here? The Grimm were still just as violent as they always were, but now… it was almost as if they were much more aware of things…

"Ruby, come on," Blake said, shaking the young girl's shoulder lightly.

It certainly snapped her out of her thoughts, to say the least. "R-Right…"

Seeing the Boarbatusk now grind to halt and charge in their direction a second later, both the team leader and her friend ran off as well to rejoin their team.

With the Boarbatusk on their tail along with the Beowulf and Ursas from earlier as well, both the R and B of team RWBY couldn't help but run just a little bit faster than they would otherwise.

* * *

As both Ruby and Blake had silently been expecting, Weiss and Yang were slowly yet surely losing ground to the legion of Grimm that were all but at their feet constantly.

"Just. Back. Off!" Yang could be heard yelling as she fired three shots, one for each punctuated word, at the massive Ursa before her.

But because of how much bigger and tougher it was than 'normal' Ursa, her shots were staggering it and merely agitating it.

And as the blond brawler was coming to learn, this wasn't really a good thing.

The Ursa roared after the third and final shot from Ember Celica and lurched forward again with surprising speed, forcing Yang to leap back before she could be crushed under its body weight.

She was gritting her teeth in a mixture of both frustration and genuine worry.

Earlier when the Grimm had first started crawling out of nowhere, she'd honestly been rather excited – nothing like some Grimm slaying to spice up the day. She was an adrenaline junkie that way.

However.

Her thoughts on the matter had changed fairly quickly when the Grimm kept on coming. When four more would pop up just to take the place of one each time, Yang had lost her happy-go-lucky smile in short order and was forced to take up a more long distance approach.

Not that it was hardly as effective as what Weiss was doing.

The W of team RWBY, with her versatile skills, was making full use of this more open area to pick the Grimm off rapidly, using her glyphs to speed up whilst using various amounts of Dust – mainly ice Dust – to incapacitate or otherwise slow the horde of Grimm down. Her weapon, Myrtenaster, was only directly used to literally stab the weaker Grimm such as the Beowulves to death only when they were at their most vulnerable.

As for Yang, a young woman who mainly relied on close up fighting, she was fighting an increasingly unfair battle; due to the sheer number of Grimm that were still making it past Weiss' perimeter, close range combat was no longer an option lest she want to expose herself dangerously to attacks from all sides. She may have confidence in her fists, but her fighting style was meant for one-on-one situations, not one-on-hundred. At least she thought it was a hundred; too many Grimm packed together to accurately count.

At any rate, she was forced to rely heavily on Ember Celica to push back the Grimm, but that wasn't doing much good right now. For the Ursa was still standing and only getting angrier.

It roared at her fiercely. Yang wasn't amused. "Yeah, yeah, shut up! I'm not having a good time either!" she exclaimed to the Ursa before taking a risk here. She dashed up to it quickly and delivered a quick one-two combo to its torso, aiming for its ribs. Ember Celica fired as both hits connected and Yang heard _and_ felt something break under the force of her two blows.

And fortunately it was enough to make the Ursa fall onto its back in pain, howling.

Unfortunately, this didn't stop the Beowulves and other Ursas around it from closing in on Yang.

Mumbling a curse or two under her breath, Yang backed off hastily and quickly reloaded her gauntlets, which had run empty just now. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face; she didn't have many rounds left. Soon, they'd all be used up and she'd be screwed.

This couldn't be said for Weiss, though.

A harsh scream resounded throughout the area, immediately grabbing Yang's attention in time for her to turn and see a Beowulf land a lucky strike on Weiss just as she'd been about to dash past it. Its wild swing caught Weiss in her stomach, claws first. It stopped her dead in her tracks and thanks to the momentum she'd built up until then, nearly caused her to drop her weapon.

Then the Beowulf lifted the heiress and smashed her into the ground hard before violently kicking her away, conveniently in Yang's direction.

"Urgghh…" This was the only sound Weiss was capable of making as she tried to shakily get back on her feet, but the few hits she'd just sustained had done some serious damage thanks to having been taken so off guard. She wouldn't be able to get up in time to stave off of the other Beowulves that were now hording around her.

But like hell this was going to happen on Yang's watch.

"Weiss!" the blonde cried out in worry. Only for that worry to change in pure anger. She and Weiss may have some disputes, fairly minor, but she'd be damned if she let the Grimm hurt her teammate.

Her semblance activated from rage alone, her blonde hair becoming glowing brightly with energy whilst her eyes turned a fierce red. She then leapt lightly into the air, right fist cocked back. "Stay like that! Keep your balance!"

Weiss halted her movements just as Yang slammed her fist down into the ground with tremendous force, her semblance increasing the power of her strike greatly.

The ground split open slightly from where she struck, but that hadn't been the point of the action. The entire ground within twenty feet of Yang shook violently, as if a small earthquake had just occurred. While far from devastating, it was still enough to take the Grimm all by surprise and make many of them lose their balance.

Weiss, prepared however slightly for this, was able to remain fairly unaffected and promptly leapt back towards Yang when the tremors seized, though not before stabbing a Beowulf in its throat.

"You alright, Weiss-cream?" Yang asked as the girl now joined her side.

Weiss huffed tiredly, the hits having been pretty strong for a Beowulf. "If you're still calling me that, then I guess this situation can't be too bad…"

Yang allowed herself a slight chuckle. "Dunno about that. There are a lot of them this time around…" she said in a fairly serious voice.

This prompted Weiss to look at her briefly. Yang must have had quite the expression on her face if the Schnee heiress promptly nodded with a tightened expression.

Yang cocked back her fists while Weiss shifted Myrtenaster's Dust cartridge to a different one. They both then moved back to back in order to survey the Grimm still left.

And as the Grimm began to all get back up now, it was clear that they hadn't appreciated what Yang had just done.

"How much aura do you have left?" Weiss asked of Yang.

"About 75% still. Took some hits earlier on when the horde kept coming. You?" Yang eyed a particularly small Ursa, this one being a little shorter and noticeably slimmer than the usual ones. It seemed rather fast compared to its kin.

"Under 50%... those hits had really taken me by surprise. Not to mention how much I used up just to use my glyphs…" Weiss commented.

Yang looked all around them slowly. Thanks to her little 'ground pound,' the Grimm horde had been knocked apart a bit, enough to let her and Weiss get a better count of the Grimm.

"About a few dozen of these punks left… think it's enough for us?" she asked.

Weiss' grip on her weapon audibly tightened. "Let's hope s-."

She was cut off rather abruptly when the Grimm began to howl in surprise… and fear?

Something shot out from among the trees and an instant later one of the Ursas went sailing right over the two girls.

With its head missing.

Yang, always the vocal one of team RWBY, gawked unabashedly. "What the fuck?!"

The Grimm roared as one, prompting her and Weiss to look in the direction the now dead Ursa had been thrown from… just in time to see some of the Beowulves attempt to _run away_ while the rest immediately surged towards… well, whatever had come.

And whatever had come was evidently unaffected by the Grimm horde focusing upon him/her/it?

Yang and Weiss could tell this much when they heard another Ursa shriek in agony before collapsing, whatever had happened to it being covered up by the Grimm horde's collective mass. Then a Beowulf was launched into the air, split almost completely in two.

A thunderous crash was heard and a pathway was practically made in the Grimm horde as more than several Beowulves were blown back through it. They all ended up landing near Yang's feet and the blonde looked down in time to see a deep fist impression left in one of them – presumably the one to directly take the attack – before dissipating into their usual black mist upon death.

Then more than several screeches were heard in rapid succession and Yang and Weiss could only watch in utter shock as they saw the horde visibly _shrink_ in size.

That was when they finally saw him.

Their hand-to-hand combat professor, Jaune Arc.

He emerged from the horde of the remaining Grimm, his head turned so that they couldn't see his expression. His black coat billowed in the wind as he lightly leapt into the air… whilst lifting another Ursa.

Then he spun several times rapidly before actually _body-slamming_ the large Ursa on top of another one, doing so with such force that both practically exploded from the impact.

But their professor wasn't done just yet.

Yang and Weiss looked on with silent, rapt attention as Jaune used the very impact to bounce himself towards four Beowulves clustered together. Nearing them, he then lashed out with an attack too quick to be seen – Yang was fairly sure it was some kind of punch, though – and one of the Beowulves collapsed instantly, a hole where its heart should have been.

As this one fell, Jaune surged forward like a tsunami, his very presence rooting the other Beowulves in place from sheer fear, it would seem. He reached out with his other hand and stabbed in between the rib-like white armor that one of them had, his hand easily piercing through its pitch black flesh. It howled in agony and immediately tried to retaliate, the pain restoring it to its senses. It shouldn't have bothered – Jaune reared his hand out and then smashed it quickly into its lower jaw, shattering it.

Then grabbing hold of the shattered jaw, Jaune used the disabled Beowulf to guard against a vicious slash from the third one, which only succeeded in putting the meat shield out of its misery. And leaving itself open as well.

As if sensing this, the fourth Beowulf lunged forward now with tremendous speed, its arms blurring as it unleashed a torrent of slashes with its claws at the areas that its brethren had left open, hoping to land even one strike on Jaune.

But to Yang and Weiss, its efforts appeared to be hopeless.

"W-Wha-?!" Yang couldn't help but yelp out and with reason.

For now Jaune, somehow and someway, was behind the two Beowulves in an instant, already marching onto the other Grimm that left. She and Weiss watched with slackening jaws as the two Beowulves then found themselves ripped to shreds not even a split second later and all without Jaune having even appeared to touch them.

Jaune came to a sudden stop when the remaining Grimm howled at him in unison, prompting looks of confusion from Yang and Weiss.

Seeing this action, Yang couldn't help but find herself wondering just what the hell he was doing now.

That was when a Boarbatusk came charging out of the crowd of Grimm still left, the naturally boar-like Grimm startling quiet.

And it was at that same second that Yang realized something, prompting a gasp of wonder and shock.

The remaining Grimm hadn't simply been howling so loudly like that for no reason; they'd done it so that Jaune, whose blindness was apparently obvious even to them, wouldn't hear the Boarbatusk approach him.

What. The. Hell?! Just when had the Grimm ever been this smart?!

Nonetheless, Yang immediately felt compelled to call out to the professor, shoving aside her shock instantly. "Hey, look o-!"

But alas, her warning was unneeded.

Because again, Beacon's newest professor surprised her and Weiss big time.

As the Boarbatusk neared him, Jaune literally skipped forward, twisting his body so that he narrowly avoided the Grimm's tusks… by getting in between them. He was just a second away from being struck by the Grimm's face.

Or so Yang thought, that is.

Jaune's left leg suddenly shot up and came crashing down in a beautiful axe-kick that connected with the very top of the Boarbatusk's skull. The Grimm's skull audibly cracked, sending shivers racing down Yang's and Weiss' spines. And then grabbing hold of the tusks as the Grimm was knocked down, Jaune _pulled_.

The screeching the Boabatusk unleashed as its tusks were ripped right off would haunt Yang's dreams that night. The blonde brawler of team RWBY was pretty sure her heiress teammate would be experiencing unpleasant thoughts on the scene as well for the rest of the day.

But their new professor didn't seem to care much about that, assuming he knew they were there… for he didn't seem intent on stopping with just that.

Rearing one of the tusks back, he rammed it through the Boarbatusk's right eye before throwing the other at a Beowulf that had tried to run off into the forest of Forever Falls. Both Grimm struck by the tusks now dissipated into the air, their deaths quick but far from painless.

The remaining Grimm, utterly frozen from the violence just unleashed before them, were unnaturally silent, their red eyes glued to Jaune with an intensity that neither Yang or Weiss had ever seen in them before.

As for the two huntresses-in-training themselves, they could scarcely move from where they were, unable to believe what had just taken place.

One thing was certain though, amazingly enough…

"…Is it just me, or is he somehow holding back a little," Weiss said in a very low voice, unable to speak any higher. "I mean… we were actually able to see his movements this time around for the most part."

"Looks that way," Yang replied, the blonde eyeing the once again motionless professor with a surprising amount of intensity.

He may have very well saved their lives with just his brief time here so far. While she held a great deal of confidence in her own power and skill, Yang had had the feeling that in due time she and Weiss would've been overwhelmed by the Grimm. Even if Ruby and Blake had returned to aid them, the sheer numbers and the increasingly obvious tactical intelligence of the Grimm would've brought them down in fairly short order.

Yet… in just the span of barely a minute – as hard as that was to believe – Jaune Arc had easily turned the situation on its head. Where there had once been more than a few dozen Grimm, thanks to his actions earlier when he'd joined in, the number had dropped by more than half.

Were all of the professors this damn good? Yang couldn't help but ponder that right now despite the situation.

"Ms. Xiao-Long, Ms. Schnee."

Yang, despite her efforts, jumped a little at the sudden calling of her and Weiss by the professor.

Jaune's head was only slightly tilted in their direction, his face still turned away from the two as he looked ahead(?) at the still frozen Grimm. "Are the two of you alright?"

"…Just some minor damage, professor Arc," Weiss managed to say first. "Nothing to be too concern about."

"I see. That's good," Jaune replied. A certain sense of cheer could be detected in his voice, which sort of made Yang look a little worried. It just contrasted a little too much with the tense posture he had in addition to, well, this equally tense situation with the Grimm… who were now beginning to move again.

And evidently, they no longer seemed intent on staying back; all of the remaining Grimm now began to slowly charge towards Jaune, ignoring her and Weiss completely.

A sigh escaped from Jaune, its suddenness again taking Yang and Weiss aback. It sounded like the kind of sigh one would let out when confronted by something stupid. Yang should know, since it's the same kind of sigh Weiss had come to frequently let out in the face of team RWBY's antics. Why the hell this was something she was noticing and comparing, Yang didn't know.

"Give me just a few minutes or so, ladies… and once this is taken care of, we'll be evacuating along with the other students," Jaune said calmly as he began to walk forward to meet the remaining horde.

And when the clash between him and the Grimm began in earnest, Yang and Weiss could only remain where they were, unable to take their eyes off the massacre before them.

* * *

Pyrrha grunted as she managed to deal a deathblow to the final Ursa that had tried to box her in. It'd been a hell of a tough time dealing with the Ursas, but she'd managed to break free of them and strike them down after using Milo's Xiphos form to cut away lightly at their feet until they backed off enough to have some more breathing room.

That said, she hadn't emerged unscathed; armor covered in dust and even dented or outright missing pieces at some points, her left cheek swollen with a nasty bruise courtesy of an Ursa's palm, and some long gashes on her back from one particularly strong slash from another Ursa that had spotted an opening, it was clear that the regional champion had taken some serious damage from the tussle she'd been forced into.

It made her greatly reevaluate Grimm in general. Up until today, most Grimm she'd faced had usually been under controlled conditions back in Mistral during her training. And while that couldn't really be said during Beacon's initiation, she'd had others at her side in addition to the number of Grimm they'd had to fight being considerably few in number.

She will admit that she'd found most of the Grimm at the time to be rather underwhelming, but today had opened her eyes to the true severity of the threat they posed. Their numbers now seemed all but endless to her and from the glimpses she'd caught of them going after her friends, it was clear that at least when in large packs, the Grimm could demonstrate surprising intelligence, making themselves that much more effective at potentially slaying overconfident trainees such as herself.

Well, not anymore.

Now that she had a much better grasp of how they worked, Pyrrha resolved herself to not take them so lightly anymore.

First thing first, though… time to aid her teammates.

First, the redhead dashed over to where Nora was. She went for the auburn haired girl – currently being beaten down on by three Beowulves – first due to the potential crowd control she could pull off with Magnhild. It would come in handy in helping Ren and Jeanne fight off the Grimm that were going for them.

Nearing the downed rambunctious girl and her three attackers, Pyrrha threw her shield at one of the Beowulves as hard as she could. It connected solidly with the side of its face and made it stagger off of Nora. Immediately using her semblance to manipulate Akouo, the redheaded amazon had it rebound off of the other two before returning to her.

"Nora! Please get up!" she yelled to the girl as she then switched Milo into its gun form and immediately fired upon the three stunned Beowulves. With quick yet careful shots, she killed them just as she finished closing the distance between her and Nora…

…Just as more Beowulves began to pour out from in between the trees just several yards away. Pyrrha could say with complete confidence that they didn't look happy.

But thankfully for her, Nora was quick to get up. And while looking more than a little bruised, the auburn haired girl was still looking as lively as she usually did. Her eyes narrowed in anger and that was all the signal Pyrrha needed to promptly move back a bit.

A wise decision indeed.

With a battle cry, Nora switched Magnhild into its hammer form and smashed it with all of her strength and rage into the ground, firing a grenade just as it made contact to further increase the impact's power.

The first several Beowulves to come pouring out from the forest didn't see it coming and were immediately sent sprawling to the ground as the shockwave from the hammer strike made the area violently shake. The rest remained standing due to being able to steady themselves against the trees nearby and even then, they'd nearly lost their balance.

The sight of this made Pyrrha narrow her eyes in confusion and worry.

That the Beowulves would attempt to steady themselves like that… not only did it once again display a surprising level of intelligence for them, it also demonstrated something oddly human-like about them… it unnerved the redhead, to say the least.

Alas, now wasn't the time to let such things get to her. She had to fight.

"Nora! Fire at them!" she said to her friend as she charged forward at a fairly slow speed, Akouo now back in her hand.

"With pleasure!" Nora exclaimed with nearly mad glee as she immediately switched Magnhild back into its gun form and fired two grenades at the crowd of Beowulves. Both grenades struck their marks and exploded with tremendous power, killing the Grimm unfortunate enough to have been caught in the direct blast while those near the slain ones survived albeit blown back from the force.

This provided Pyrrha ample opportunity to clean up the ones left. Now leaping into the air, the redhead ended up smashing shield-first into two Beowulves, knocking them both down and promptly slashing at their necks with Milo, slitting their throats and rendering them at death's door.

Those two dealt with in one swift swoop, Pyrrha switched Milo into its javelin form and extended it, practically turning it into a spear. She gracefully swung it all around her several times, nicking the Beowulves within range.

Some of this 'nicks' proved to be just that – minor injuries. But in the case of some Beowulves, it proved to be more severe than that, Pyrrha's attack cutting certain tendons or piercing particularly deep into the skin.

Regardless of the severity of the damage, all Beowulves were taken by surprise and left literally being taken aback, with all of them stepping away in some form.

Pyrrha felt her muscles scream at her from how fiercely she'd done this, the past several minutes of desperate fighting, in addition to the damage she'd sustained, getting to her now. But nonetheless, she pushed on. Allowing fatigue to get to her now could easily be her undoing.

Especially one when Beowulf managed to recover quicker than the others and tried to lunge forward, swiping at her side. It was only thanks to her trained reflexes that Pyrrha was able to pivot to avoid the attack while also countering in kind, actually managing to cut the Beowulf's jaw with the round edge of Akouo, before delivering a leg sweep that made it fall to the ground. A graceful stab of Milo to its skull quickly put the Grimm down for good before it could fully react to any of these actions.

Huffing greatly, Pyrrha immediately backed away as the other Beowulves began to recover now and inch towards her.

Just as she did so, she heard a now familiar sound pierce through the air and before she knew it, a grenade struck one of the Beowulves towards the back of the group right in its face. When the grenade exploded on impact, the shockwave was enough to blow the other ones forward along with Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha?!" Nora could be heard crying out in worry as the redhead in question went sailing back.

But Pyrrha wasn't Mistral's regional champion for nothing. She managed to turn her slight flight into a roll as she hit ground and managed to swiftly end up on her feet right next to Nora. "I'm fine!"

Growls from all around them silenced any further chatter, however, and in between the red trees of Forever Falls, more Grimm could be seen closing in.

Pyrrha switched Milo into its gun form and slowly took aim in one direction while Nora pressed her back to hers and took aim in the opposite direction.

The redhead couldn't quite suppress the gulp as it happened.

Things weren't looking too good at all…

* * *

It had taken more than a little time, but through great effort, Jeanne had managed to fight her way over to Ren.

It certainly hadn't been easy though, as the blonde girl's clothing could attest, with cuts and tears all over her battle dress. The armor she wore also sported scratches as well and dirt littered everywhere upon her, the result of being knocked into the ground a few too many times by Ursas.

Amazingly though, the girl sported few actual injuries, with the worst merely being some large scratches and a few bruises upon her arms and legs from some bad blocks and the likes. As for her face, only cut could be seen, the result of a very close call with the teeth of a small Beowulf.

This was all due to her aura level, which was considerably above average from first year trainees and even above most second and third years as well. Jeanne had no problem saying that if there was one thing she had that was to her advantage, it was her aura level.

But alas, not even in this situation would it do much good; with so many Grimm all but literally flooding the area, her aura would be dwindled down to nothing if she was ganged up on.

That said, though… "Ren, you okay?!" she asked as she and him neared one another, the onslaught of Grimm on their side of the area seeming to come to an abrupt end. For some reason, all of the Grimm in this part of the forest had suddenly started to roar and head elsewhere, as if something much more interesting had caught their attention.

Jeanne couldn't fathom what such a thing could be, but at least it took the pressure off them for now.

"I don't think I'll be leaving my bed for a few days after this," the raven haired teen remarked dryly. Because of his low level of aura when compared to his teammates, he was perhaps the most beat up of the four, his clothes torn in various places and lightly caked with dirt and blood. He had a large yet not apparently fatal gash upon his back, what little aura he has left likely being what was preventing it from bleeding too much.

The sole male of team JNPR then pointed tiredly yet determinedly to where Pyrrha and Nora were at, the two girls in question all but impossible to see as Beowulves and some Ursas surrounded them entirely. "We have to get them out of there… and get ourselves out of here as well."

He tried to limp his way over there, Stormflower only barely wielded in his hands. When he staggered forward a second later, Jeanne all but dropped Crocea Mors completely as she rushed to help him remain standing.

"I know! I know…" Her face scrunched up with frustration. "But how?" she whispered to herself.

As things currently stood, it was all but hopeless. While the Grimm that had been coming after her and Ren had taken off for parts unknown, the two of them were still hardly in good shape. Pyrrha and Nora were currently being surrounded and Ren was completely out of bullets. As for herself, Crocea Mors was a 'classic weapon,' meaning it had no gun form to speak of. The only way for her to fight would be to do so up close, but in this situation that'd only barely take some pressure off of Pyrrha and Nora. Certainly not enough to make a difference in the long run and doing so would also require her to leave Ren to fend for himself since both hands would be needed to wield her sword and shield.

But damn it, she was the leader of team JNPR! Her friends were all in danger! Like hell she could just give up here!

But what to do? There was no way she could fight her way through that many Grimm to stand beside her partner and Nora. And she couldn't drag Ren along with her up to that crowd of Grimm; that'd only be signing his death warrant. Yet to leave him behind also put him at risk of an ambush!

She needed a way to try and split the crowd up though, just enough for Pyrrha and Nora to get out of there and they all make a break for it, but ho-?!

A sound suddenly caught her attention, a sort of whirring sound that she only vaguely recognized.

A quick glance to an increasingly tired Ren told her that he heard it too.

And it seemed to be coming from somewhere above them.

So they both looked up wildly, their eyes immediately locking onto something off in the distance yet quickly approaching.

Or rather _someone_.

"Professor Goodwitch!" Jeanne nearly exclaimed into Ren's ears. The blonde woman appeared to be using her semblance to levitate her way across the entire forest, using some piece of ground as a platform of sorts. No doubt, she was looking for the other students.

And unfortunately, she wasn't looking in their direction. Also, she appeared a little too far away for even Jeanne, with her loud voice, to be able to reach her with a shout.

Still…

"We have to get her attention," Ren said firmly as he tried to stand on his own now. Jeanne made a note that he unconsciously limped a little in the direction of Pyrrha and Nora.

"But how…?" Jeanne asked herself aloud as she looked all around for something.

But there was nothing that could be used. All that was around them were-.

"Trees!" she then proclaimed in a sort of joy.

"Tre-?" Ren had been about to say tiredly, only to stop abruptly when Jeanne suddenly returned her shield into its holster form and put it away whilst running closer to where the crowd of Grimm were at.

Jeanne felt his eyes on her, but didn't say anything though. Instead, she felt like smacking herself a bit for not thinking of this sooner. After all, a true huntress doesn't get by through just power and skill alone; sometimes ingenuity is required. As well as taking advantage of one's surroundings.

Spotting a particularly tall tree, Jeanne took just a second to size things up before she gripped Crocea Mors tightly and swung at the base of the tall tree.

A loud thwack greeted her ears along with the sound of slashing and gunfire and explosions from nearby. Pyrrha and Nora were still holding their own against that seemingly endless crowd and it was this almost simple fact that caused the blonde to swing her blade again as hard as she could.

Another thwack resounded through her eardrums and the tree lurched slightly to the left. She swung a third time and it lurched even more, but still not quite enough.

A pained cry – Nora's from the sound of it – now echoed through the air followed by a fearful cry of "Nora?!" from Ren. This prompted Jeanne to swing a fourth time with far greater strength than she ever thought herself capable of mustering.

So strong was her final swing, carrying all of her strength and weight into it, that it finally sliced the rather thick base of the tree completely. It now tilted dangerously to its left and fell completely just as Jeanne leapt forward and tackled it painfully with her right shoulder.

She then shouted as loud as she could. "TIMMMMMMMBBBBBEEEEEEEEERRRRR!"

She prayed that her two trapped friends wouldn't be took taken aback by her sudden shout and dodge right away, the tree now falling towards the crowd of Grimm frighteningly fast.

Thankfully, her shout seems to have caught the many Beowulves and Ursas by surprise, many of them actually tensing up suddenly when she'd screamed.

Even more thankfully, as the shadow of the large tree fell upon them, the crowd of Grimm began to hastily break up on instinct to avoid being crushed.

And what a crash it was.

Jeanne didn't know how heavy on average the trees here in Forever Falls were, but this one seemed to have weighed a ton, if the thunderous impact it made upon hitting ground was anything to go by. The sharps cries of pain from some Beowulves as well, some having been most unlucky in attempting to avoid it.

"Pyrrha, Nora! Run now!" Jeanne then screamed out.

When the tree had hit the ground, it'd kicked up a lot of dirt and fallen leaves, rendering it impossible to see anything for the moment.

And yet… Jeanne somehow knew that her friends were still alive and well.

And as both girls suddenly appeared from out of the unintentional smokescreen, making a mad dash out of the split up Grimm horde, Jeanne could only tear up in joy.

Whatever may happen next, she managed to save her friends.

* * *

Glynda had been levitating through the sky at a most hasty paste. It's been several minutes since she'd taken flight and during that time, she'd quickly made a circle above the areas where she knew students to have been in.

Having ensured their safety via an aerial bombardment of sheer power upon their attackers, she'd then directed all of them to a more abandoned area of Forever Falls.

A quick call to Ozpin with her scroll had also ensured a bullhead being flown to the location right now in order to get them all out of here.

Alas, her duty was far from done just yet; both teams RWBY and JNPR, along with her assistant professor, were still unaccounted.

What made this particularly worrying was that most of the Grimm had appeared to be heading for the area where team RWBY had last been known to be in. The very same area that she'd caught Jaune rushing off to earlier when she'd told him to do so.

After the little time she'd known him, Glynda held Jaune's skill at a pretty high standard, the young man having more than proved his ability in combat. Still… with so many Grimm heading in his general direction, she couldn't help but worry for his safety.

As strong as he was, surely one simple mistake could spell misfortune for him, especially if team RWBY had been injured enough to require he divide his efforts between keeping them safe and fighting the Grimm off.

That had been when something caught her attention, putting her thoughts on a sudden hold.

A thunderous thud resounded throughout the forest and it was enough for her to nearly lose her concentration from the sheer suddenness of it all.

Turning around, she saw dirt being sent flying high into the air and that was all it took to tell her that no doubt students were over there.

Brusquely changing direction, she headed right for it just as the debris from the crash finally began to settle…

…Revealing team JNPR now on the run from a crowd of Grimm. The young Lie Ren appeared to be all but carried, however, by the rambunctious Nora Valkyrie, who herself looked more than a little bruised up, a fact that could also be said for Jaune's younger sister, Jeanne, and her partner, Pyrrha.

A fact that was sure to change if the Grimm got their claws on them.

Which was something Glynda most definitely wouldn't allow at all.

No more students would be getting hurt today.

Raising her riding crop high into the air, aura became visible in a purple color as it coalesced just above the crop's tip.

Then when it formed into a ball of pure unrestrained aura, Glynda launched it downwards to the horde of Grimm that now gave chase after team JNPR.

Ah, how reassuring it was, to hear the cheering cries of her students – mainly Jeanne, it'd seem – as the Grimm were eradicated in a huge explosion of a brilliant purple light.

Time to round them up and go find team RWBY and her assistant as well.

And then after that… time to head home.

* * *

Blake's cat ears, still hidden under her large bow, twitched as she heard a massive explosion go off in the far distance.

She wasn't the only one to have heard either.

"What was that?!" Ruby asked in shock, slowing down slightly in her running to turn and see if she could spot the explosion.

"Hopefully, some help," Blake replied as she kept running alongside her leader.

It'd taken much more time than they'd have liked, but they'd finally managed to either outrun or kill the Grimm that had been pursuing them and now the two of them could safely dash back to where Weiss and Yang last were.

It pained both her and Ruby that they couldn't get back to them sooner, but alas the Grimm had proved that troublesome to shake, not to mention how hard it'd been for them to fight back in the tight spaces the trees and bushes provided for them.

Blake could honestly say that she was greatly worried for her partner… and Weiss as well. Though it's only been just a few weeks since the school year started, Yang had already grown on her a lot thanks to her lively yet surprisingly insightful attitude. Hell, even Weiss, despite her still occasional snobbishness, had come to be rather endearing in her own way. Hard to believe she once hated the girl for simply being a Schnee.

"Stay sharp, Ruby," she said as her eyes narrowed. As she ran, she proceeded to grip her blade tightly. "There's no telling just how many Grimm might be left or in what condition Yang and Weiss will be in."

"Right!" Ruby's own silver eyes narrowed, the thought of her sister and partner being hurt clearly causing her to focus to an almost unnatural degree.

It was enough to make Blake respect the young girl that much more, the ability to switch between such a carefree persona to a much more serious one on and off the battlefield honestly being a trait that amazed her.

So much so, in fact, that had she been listening a little more attentively she might've noticed that no more Grimm seemed to be roaming around. Or that the sounds of fighting had ceased completely.

Because of this, she and Ruby could only come screeching to a sudden and very stunned stop as they reached the clearing where the W and Y of their team were at.

For in the clearing stood an utterly stupefied Weiss and Yang along with none other than the new professor, Jaune Arc, whose blind eyes regarded their arrival with a calmness to it that left Blake feeling rattled.

But what rattled her even more… was the fact that the once red grass of Forever Falls was now dyed pitch black in color.

Somehow, someway, she knew immediately why this was.

The Grimm… whenever they were slain, they always faded into a pitch black mist that either fell to the ground or was blown away by the lightest of breezes.

And given the what the situation had been with the sudden onslaught of Grimm…

Blake inwardly shivered, her entire body remaining rooted to the spot as her eyes traveled back and forth between her two thankfully fine teammates and the one clearly responsible for this… this mess.

…Just how many Grimm had he killed to render the _entire clearing_ black in color?

She suddenly felt his eyes – his blind eyes, she had to remind herself – move from nowhere in particular to her. Just how in the world does he do that? It honestly feels like he can actually see where she i-!

"U-Uhmm…" Ruby then began, causing all eyes – Jaune's included – to turn to her.

Blake watched mutely as Ruby looked around as well, taking the sight of the black clearing in before finally saying what was on her mind.

And Blake couldn't help but mentally applaud the girl for saying almost exactly what she wanted to know.

"So… did we happen to miss anything?"

* * *

 **And bam! Done!**

 **Again, huge 'SORRY' for the wait. Alas, I didn't particularly feel like splitting things up into two or three chapters regarding this Grimm invasion of the forest – it just doesn't warrant that kind of length, so to speak in my eyes.**

 **If it seems like team RWBY and JNPR as well failed to show off much of their mad skills, then don't worry. This entire situation was intentional and my reasoning for it will hopefully be explained well in the next chapter or two for this. That, and I plan to wait until later to show off their awesomeness in other fights down the line.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	10. Chapter 10

Ah Amaama to Inazuma… how you touch my heart! As a reader of the manga, I'd been slightly worried how the anime would play out the cutesy/heartwarming scenes, but so far it's been doing a great job! Now to see if it'll keep up.

And a No Game No Life movie is going to come out! Man, next year is going to be a great one!

Oh, to suddenly switch tracks too, what would you guys think of a HOTD fic after this one has been completed? As usual, I brainstorm new fics even when working on this one and my second original novel and lately HOTD has been on the mind. It'll be borrowing a lot of elements from another manga, but for the most part I plan to make it fairly original in how it plays out. Let me know what you think!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 10

Amber stirred slightly within the capsule she was always stuck in. Still, no matter how notable her stirring was, the young woman was still very much in a near comatose state.

And yet… slowly but surely, she was pulling herself out of such a state.

Such a thing would be normally thought impossible if someone had been here to witness this, but in reality, it wasn't such a mind-boggling thing that much; as far as her body itself was concern, the damage she'd sustained from those three mysterious attackers had long since healed. It'd just been the subsequent draining of her Fall Maiden powers that had left her in her current state.

And while it'd taken more than some time to begin recovering, Amber's aura had returned along with a majority of her power.

Soon… very soon, she'd awaken for good.

And while it should have been impossible for this to occur, the still comatose maiden couldn't help but feel a slight sense of eagerness fill her very soul.

For she had much to look into upon her awakening, starting with that presence that still lingered here.

* * *

Jaune, having been in the midst of reading up on some faculty related material – finally available to him in brail now – suddenly shivered.

 _The Fall Maiden is recovering…_

He could tell because he could, for lack of a better way to put it, sense it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

And it left him with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, yay! Once the young woman had awakened and adjusted to having an incomplete power, she could really help out against what would inevitably come.

On the other hand, oh _shit_. Jaune was well aware of the sort of effect he'd likely have on a maiden and he highly doubted any maiden would be positively receptive to his very presence due to his, ah, _condition_. As such, it wouldn't surprise him very much if the Fall Maiden decided to take a 'crush first, ask questions later' approach to finally meeting with him – which would definitely be inevitable.

Raising a hand and making and unmaking a fist several times, Jaune tried to now calmly assess his current state.

While he was, as Ozpin had said during their initial meeting, considerably more powerful than any of the students here at Beacon – and at other such academies too – Jaune knew for a fact where he stood when compared to true huntsmen and huntresses. While he was certain to have the advantage in physical ability against the more 'average' hunters in Remnant, he knew he was still lacking in experience when compared to them. And when compared to a _maiden_ of all people, he likely would be outstripped in not only experience, but also overall power as well…

…Well, not unless he used his semblance, maybe.

 _Stop thinking like that._

Jaune shook his head at that thought. True, thinking already in part on how to combat the Fall Maiden was likely a bad thing. After all, fighting her in any capacity wasn't even remotely his goal in such an unavoidable meeting – his goal was to simply try and defuse the situation without getting himself killed.

Grumbling to himself now, Jaune immediately tried to rid himself of these thoughts. They'd do him no good if he ended up following through on them, even if only by accident.

A sudden knock at his door – he'd been reading peacefully within his room/office space – nearly made him go falling out of his chair, but he'd managed to keep himself rooted in place.

Peering up at the door, his Aura Vision allowed him to see who it was before she could even speak.

And it made him quirk both of his eyebrows a little bit.

Nonetheless, he was already somewhat grateful for the timely distraction… and he could use some company too.

So without missing a beat, he spoke. "Come on in, Ms. Nikos."

* * *

Cinder… was feeling a little annoyed.

No, perhaps that wasn't really the best way to word. Annoyance, to her, implied that it would soon evolve into anger and that would lead to violence.

And while she was hardly a pacifist – wow, that would make for an interesting joke, somehow – Cinder liked to think she was above needless violence.

So no, she wasn't annoyed – she was merely slightly miffed.

"So you plan on explaining your lack of help again?"

Though admittedly, such a feeling could easily evolve into annoyance and go on from there…

"Roman… for the last time, _enough_. I won't explain myself anymore to you. You're lucky I even explained what had happened in the first place," she said, managing to keep her voice level as she talked with the thief before her.

It's been just a little more than a week since that little sidekick girl of Roman's had gone to bust him out of Atlas custody and while the so-called 'smooth criminal' and his little imp had only barely returned to this base of sorts a few days ago, Cinder had already found herself wishing Roman had remained locked up.

After he'd returned, he'd immediately made a show of sorts of barking orders, demanding fresh clothes to replace 'these pieces of shit called clothes' he'd said about his prison clothes. After that, he'd immediately tried to hunt her down – which had been a surprisingly easy thing since she'd been returning from one of her other endeavors at the time – and had started demanding why the hell she hadn't stopped his being taken into custody.

Even though she'd decided reluctantly to explain what had happened if only to get him off her case, the man had made it a point to pester her about this one point since then.

Needless to say, it was beginning to grate the woman's nerves. And if this kept up, she aimed to make it very clear that this was a bad thing for _him_ and not her.

That being said, however… this punk standing before her didn't seem to realize that. Or perhaps he did, but conveniently forgot for the time being.

Cinder did her best to avoid gritting her teeth when Roman gave her that annoying smirk of his, twirling Melodic Cudgel in his right hand.

"Oh like hell you did! You really expect me to buy that? You still could've attacked from afar to drive them back! It wouldn't have been that hard to get me out of there!" he barked.

"Roman… you were knocked unconscious. Suppose I had decided to get closer and attack anyways… just how would I have pulled you up in time before the blond man intervened again? Or if a hunter had shown up to help those two?" Cinder calmly fired back.

She folded her arms under her breasts and leveled a stern gaze at the man, as if daring him to say something in response.

Thankfully, he seemed to remember his place in her little plan and merely grunted in distaste. "…Still could've done something about it."

Cinder had wanted to reply to that, but the man continued on anyways, throwing up his hands in both frustration and some measure of excitement. "Ah well! I suppose when you get down to it, it doesn't matter much! Cause I'm already planning to look into this blond punk."

"…Looking for some payback, I take it?" Cinder now asked instead.

"Something like that, sweetie," he shot back mockingly. Oh much Cinder would've loved to burn his sneer off right now for that. "Revenge is a thing I'd like, yeah… but it's also simply business. Reputation counts for a lot in the criminal world, so what had happened with this guy… it's a stain on my reputation. Bad for business, you see… can't have that."

"But of course…" Cinder made sure to make the sarcasm as obvious as possible. It grabbed Roman's attention, to be sure. "Well, you're going to have to put it aside for now; now that you're back, how about you make up for lost time and get more Dust for us?"

She'd said it so casually that even she felt somewhat taken aback by it. And she'd been meaning to say this from the start too!

And as expected, Roman looked surprised and not too happy to hear that. "Excuse me?" he began. "You want me to go around stealing more Dust for you? After letting me get caught like that?!"

"Yes," she said bluntly.

"Oh really? And just why should I do that?" Roman then said.

"Because if you don't, Roman… you'll never get to see how it all ends," she said simply.

And with just those simple words, the master thief paused. For she knew that he knew what she meant.

While she'd made it a point to keep him from being privy to all of her own actions and knowledge, she'd also made sure to keep him aware of what was to generally come about. And while Roman had made it quite clear what he thought of everything, he was a survivalist at heart.

Despite whatever sort of affection he may have for that helper of his, he would do whatever it takes to survive in any situation… and that naturally includes what was to come. It was why he still here at this base today instead of having gotten anything he'd have left behind and leave.

No matter how much he may bicker with her, no matter how he may whine of simply calling this all off and jumping ship, he was with her until the end even if it was purely for his own survival and self-interests.

So naturally, being so subtly threatened with death just now had reminded the criminal of this particular fact.

Muttering more than a few colorful curses under his breath, Roman then sighed and folded his arms across his chest. He began tapping his foot impatiently whilst glaring at her.

"Fine then…" he began. "So where do you want to me go now?"

It was very slight, microscopic even… but at his words of surrender, Cinder couldn't help but smirk.

* * *

Pyrrha considered herself to be a lucky girl right now.

After all, after having spent the past week and some odd days recovering from the Forever Falls incident and having to still tend to her studies and teammates, she'd been unable to speak with the young assistant professor sitting across from her until now.

Looks like she'd come at a good time too – from what she could understand of his expression, he looked like he could have used some company.

Such a thought made her very pleased with herself and even feel a little excited…. But she made it a point to keep such feelings contained.

She'd come here for a different reason.

"So is something the matter, Ms. Nikos?" Jaune asked of her after getting some tea for the two of them.

"Please… just call me Pyrrha," she replied with a bright smile. She didn't know why, but it seemed like that one time sparring with Cardin, he'd had no problem addressing the bully by his name whereas it seemed he used surnames with others. Somewhat odd if she had to confess and a little saddening… her reason for coming here aside, she'd like a close relationship to be formed between Jaune and he- the rest of the students! Not simply between the two of them…

"Heh, okay. Only if you'd be willing to call me Jaune," he said with a matching smile. Ah if only he knew just how it made her heart skip a few beats just now. "So what brings you to me?"

"Hmm, well to be perfectly blunt," Pyrrha began, looking a little more serious now. "I wanted to know about our performance during that incident a week ago."

"Performance?" Jaune questioned curiously and with also a smidgen of confusion. Pyrrha had the feeling he was wondering why she was asking him about such a thing and not professor Goodwitch. The look only lasted a second though before he looked more focused. "Not that I don't understand the reasoning behind the question… but why me?"

If Pyrrha was being truly honest, it was because she'd much prefer talking to him about such things instead of professor Goodwitch due to her, ah, _budding fondness_ for him. That, and talking to him would be infinitely easier to do than talking to the much more stern and strict looking combat instructor.

Of course, she didn't actually say this. What she really ended up saying was: "Well, as you are my partner's older brother, you were sort of the first one I thought of concerning this matter." Using Jeanne as an excuse, which brought Pyrrha no small amount of shame for doing, she hoped to explain her reasoning. But just to play it safe… "And given your way of fighting that we've seen so far in spars, I was hoping for a very fresh opinion on the matter."

She hoped that'd be enough for him.

Jaune hummed for a moment before taking a quiet sip of his hot tea. "I see… that makes sense. Though, talking to Gly- I mean professor Goodwitch would've yielded similar results; we had both discussed the incident along with the rest of the faculty and we'd all more or less come to the same kind of conclusions on that particular matter."

Pyrrha's heartbeat skipped again, this time out of worry. He'd nearly said professor Goodwitch's first name. Were the two of them closer than she and others thought?

"I-I see. Even then, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this," she said with only a slight stutter. She mentally patted herself on the back for not stuttering more out of shock.

"…Do you mind if I'm blunt, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"Oh please… go ahead," she responded.

Jaune nodded in thanks and then took a few seconds to ponder something, his expression becoming much more attentive. When his blind blue eyes blinked and then focused back on her, Pyrrha couldn't help but be reminded of her complete loss to him at the beginning of the school year. The look combined with this particular memory sent shivers throughout her entire body. Far from unpleasant shivers, it must be said…. she'd need to head to the shower for a while, she couldn't help but silently think.

And then Jaune spoke, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Everyone taken on the trip are a fairly talented bunch, with you, Ruby, my sister, and a handful of others standing out in particular," Jaune began. "However. You all were clearly taken off guard by the assault. Granted, I and professor Goodwitch were thrown back by it too, but we had begun retaliating right away. Absolutely none of the first years were able to do so; you'd all been so utterly thrown off by the Grimm that by the time you all began to fight back in earnest, many of you had been separated or otherwise boxed in."

Jaune leaned forward in his seat, placing his arms upon his desk in the process. "Furthermore, you all were far too reliant on your weapons and that sort of screwed you all over. Because of how large in general many of your weapons are, the students that ended up having to defend themselves from the Grimm amidst the denser parts of Forever Falls were unable to fight effectively since the trees and bushes obstructed their vision and prevented larger movements for their weapons. Not only that, but most weapons were meant for one-on-one combat or at least small groups of enemies… combined with most of your focus on fighting smaller numbers of Grimm, this made you all very unprepared for dealing with the waves at the time."

He then made a slight gesture with his left hand. "Even the ones that had fought the Grimm in much more open areas still had issues since if the Grimm packed in too tightly or if just one Grimm had gotten too close, using weapons became unwieldly anyways. The only ones that could've worked around that particular issue were Yang Xiao Long and your teammate Lie Ren… and those two have their own issues as well. In the case of the former, she's much too focused on simply punching or kicking or blasting her foes away… while certainly a skilled kickboxer, she lacks variety in technique and had no way of effectively fighting off so many Grimm in close combat. As for your friend, his endurance is pitifully low when compared to yourself and the rest of team JNPR – one serious hit and he'd be out of commission for the rest of the fight. He's lucky to have even survived in one piece."

Taking a deep breath now, Jaune finished up his talking with one final piece of information. "While I and the rest of the faculty are glad that everyone made it out okay, we're still more than a little worried about how things will go in the future for you if this is the extent of your abilities, collectively and individually. To be frank, it's a genuine miracle that all of you made it out alive."

The longer he'd gone on speaking, the calmer he'd appeared to become and the easier the words had seemed to leave his mouth. By the time he finished up just now, Pyrrha couldn't help but feel thoroughly chastised despite having asked for his opinion, never mind the fact that he hadn't even really been chastising her.

"…That's both my opinion and the rest of the faculty's opinion on this as well," Jaune then said. "Though it's based on the debriefings we had for all of the first years, yourself and my sister and your other two teammates included."

"I see." It was all Pyrrha could bring herself to say immediately. She tried not to grimace. Instead she nodded her head in thanks and confirmation of something.

She and everyone else clearly had a lot to learn before they could even begin to think of becoming full fledged hunters. But alas, that was why they were all here at Beacon, right?

"Then what do you recommend we all do to improve? I certainly don't want to be in that kind of situation again," she said.

Jaune smiled a little at her, even chuckled. Despite herself, it got her blood flowing a little faster, especially with how soft his gaze had become. Hard to believe he was blind. "Professor Goodwitch and I have spent the past week trying to figure out ways to resolve a lot of those issues and we've finally managed to come up with a good lesson plan. Starting next week, we'll be implementing that so hopefully it'll help out everyone." He paused to take another drink of his tea, an especially long sip this time around. "As for what you and other students can do personally? I honestly can't say beyond simply continuing your own training… and of course, perhaps solidifying teamwork amongst you all."

At that, Pyrrha could only laugh a little now. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that last part, Jaune. Your sister had been most enthusiastic all week long in training together. Just the other day, she'd spent a lot of time trying to come up with codenames for team plays too."

That got Jaune laughing now too. "Yeah, that sounds like something she'd do." When his laughter ceased, his smile grew a bit more. "You know, I'm really glad that you're her partner, Pyrrha."

"R-Really?" Pyrrha replied. Had it just been her imagination, but did Jaune's voice become a little huskier right now?

"Mhm…" He was speaking in a lower tone of voice, but in reality, he was hardly speaking huskily here. Not that Pyrrha knew this; she was a little too suddenly caught up in the tone change itself to think straight. "She used to watch your matches fervently back then, so she really looks up to you. Although she clearly wants to be her own person, at the same time she wishes to be just as powerful and as skilled as you are… ah! I hope she isn't off-putting to you or anything! She doesn't mean it!"

Pyrrha giggled a little airily, trying to retain her calm. "O-Oh, not at all! Jeanne is a wonderful person. She may have fangirled a lot at first, but she's also trying to get to really know me and vice versa. Combined with her own drive to improve, I couldn't have asked for a better friend and partner."

"I see…" Jaune's smile grew softer and his blind eyes softened upon her. Good lord, was it her imagination again, or was it suddenly getting blisteringly hot in this room? "I'm glad to hear that."

Unable to think of anything to say in response, Pyrrha could only laugh awkwardly, praying that Jaune wouldn't notice somehow her precarious state of being.

Jaune then hummed. "Hmm, if I remember the time right, it's beginning to get pretty late now… almost time to turn in for the day?" he asked the redhead.

Said redhead blinked stupidly at first, the change in topic being so sudden for her, before briefly glancing at the clock that virtually every room came with.

As her now not-so-little crush stated, it was starting to get fairly late in the day. While hardly the time to rest up just yet, there were still some things she needed to get done before heading off to bed.

"Oh! I hadn't noticed how fast the time flew…" She failed at keeping the disappointment out of her voice. Now that her main issue had been addressed, she'd been hoping to get to know her crush a bit more. Blasted time; always quick to pass by when enjoying herself, always slower than snails when she wished for the opposite.

Jaune chuckled, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Yeah, it tends to do that sometimes." He began to stand, drinking the rest of his tea in one go. "Sounds like you have other things to do. Here, I'll see you out," he offered.

"T-Thank you very much, Jaune," Pyrrha said as she stood as well, somewhat touched by his offer. It was a very minor thing really… but as people are wont to say: it's the small things that matter sometimes.

"Don't mention it. Always here to help, Pyrrha." As Jaune circled gracefully around his desk – amazing how coordinated he is despite his lack of sight, Pyrrha couldn't help but ponder – he closed in on Pyrrha and gently gripped her shoulder. "Please… if there's ever anything you need help with in the future, don't ever hesitate to ask me. I know I'm still adapting to things here, but I'll do what I can."

His touch was gentle yet very firm. Pyrrha could literally feel his strength through his light grip and it took a herculean level of willpower to keep from shaking in, ah, delight. "I'll definitely keep that in mind," she said airily as she began to walk to the door.

She felt most saddened when he let go of her just prior to moving towards it in the first place, but she hid it well upon opening the door. "Good night, Jaune."

His smile was yet again a wonder to behold as she walked out the door. "Good night, Pyrrha."

Walking down the hallway, Pyrrha lowered her head, deep in thought. Calming down a bit from the more 'entertaining' aspects of her talk just now with Jaune, the regional champion of Mistral seriously pondered the blind young man's opinion on the first years' combat performance during the Forever Falls incident.

It'd been most blunt as she'd wanted and now that she thought on and tried to analyze it, she began to try and think of just what this new lesson plan will be to address their collective issues. Given that this was clearly something new, Pyrrha could only think that it'd likely be an experimental one; no doubt it'll change to accommodate other unknown factors as it plays out. After all, there never is any telling how exactly a plan will play out.

That said, she and the others shouldn't rely upon such a thing to help themselves improve – as Jaune had said, they'd all have to work hard on their own and together in their teams to truly make progress.

In this respect, Pyrrha could only admire her teammate, friend, and leader Jeanne even more, for the somewhat clumsy blonde was already attempting to do just that with not just herself but the rest of team JNPR as well.

Perhaps siblings really do think alike? It was food for thought.

That little tangent aside, she and the others will have a long road ahead of them before they can become true huntsmen and huntresses.

Time to return to her dorm to plan some things out.

But first… a shower.

* * *

Bartholomew Oobleck was – 'le gasp!' many students would go – moving slowly about in his painfully overcrowded office, the large room filled with overstuffed bookshelves, all of the texts there being worn down history and archeological books, each one having clearly been read and bookmarked numerous times.

Truly, it was clear-as-day evidence of the green haired professor's passion for history and the other wonders of the world.

Normally at around this time, the usually hyperactive professor would be grading homework, reading up on the latest news (international news or the newest in scientific breakthroughs), polishing his mug/weapon or burning through the remainder of his daily coffee barrels.

Yes, barrels.

Often times, due to the sheer amount of energy he contained, he'd be doing any combination of these things at once, but this afternoon-turned-evening was proving to be a nigh-unprecedented exception.

Instead of bustling about his office/dorm at hypersonic speeds, the History professor of Beacon Academy was taking his time leafing his way through a particularly small and short book that had once been buried underneath a mountain of much thicker ones.

Unlike the vast majority of his collection, this book wasn't related at all to the general history of Remnant nor to any sort of archeological find. It was certainly history _related_ , but not in the same manner as his collection nor as his teachings here in the academy.

Instead, this book was related more to the history of notable Grimm incidents over the past thousand years. Given how omnipresent a threat the Grimm provided to humans and Faunus, it really should say quite a bit that such a book would be so thin… Bartholomew – affectionately called Bart by those closest to him – had once looked upon the book in disdain prior to buying it years ago.

After he'd bought it, however, he'd come to change his tune very quickly and had referred to the short book on a few occasions in the past for some sort of guidance.

And alas, he found himself doing so now in the wake of the Forever Falls incident from last week.

For it vaguely resembled the type of incidents this thin book focused on.

Because of how many Grimm littered Remnant, both within and without the walls that protected the four kingdoms, Grimm-related deaths were sadly a dime a dozen, almost forever lost to the rest of the world.

If it were possible to record every single death and Grimm attack since the very first sighting of the Grimm, Bart had no doubt in his mind that such an endeavor would result in entire libraries filled with such literary recordings.

This book, however, only focused on exactly one thing, namely when the Grimm attacked in truly innumerable waves and with cunning that could otherwise be considered unnatural for them…

…Very much like what had happened last week in Forever Falls.

Or rather, Bart supposed it should be the other way around, that it was the incident in Forever Falls that had been only vaguely comparable to what is detailed within the book he held.

And considering just how many Grimm – mercifully no truly powerful ones – had flooded the forest and how well they'd been able to catch off guard all of the students, Bart felt that spoke volumes of the sort of numbers and terrifying intellect that the dark beasts had demonstrated in the events he was reading about.

And it was at this moment that he read this book again in hopes of some kind of answer, one that would explain why the Grimm had behaved in such a way now of all times.

Bart and other full-fledged hunters were no fools; they were more than privy to the sort of surprises the Grimm could pull off, unlike the students who'd been most ill-prepared for the conflict last week. Still, even then what the Grimm had done last week was truly unusual even to him and others in the know.

There was still so very much about the Grimm that the rest of the world could only guess at. Even Bart himself, for all of his intelligence, could only scarcely fathom what else the dark creatures could do if they really tried.

Frankly, it was a genuine miracle that no students had been critically injured during the incident and an even greater miracle that no one had died. But had much larger and more dangerous Grimm been around such as a Deathstalker or a Nevermore, Bart was certain that casualties would've been unavoidable if they'd been around and had been acting in a similarly surprising manner.

However, that all being said, there was one thing about this incident that didn't seem to be matching up with what was recorded in this book.

In all of the previous events this book was written about, the Grimm, for all of their numbers and terrifying cunning, had still followed the simple task of killing as many people as possible. They may have used surprising tactics and measured levels of sheer brute force to accomplish this, but at the end of the day, each event had been fairly predictable in terms of how things were carried out.

But in this Forever Falls incident, that wasn't quite the case; according to many of the students, many Grimm had outright passed them up to travel elsewhere in the red forest. Despite how many Grimm the students had to face off against, when compared to the overall number of Grimm that had been running rampant, it was almost as if the students had been mere afterthoughts in the grand scheme of things.

Something else had been the waves of the dark beasts' goal… but just what exactly could it have been? What could have possibly been so great a thing as to have armies worth of Grimm ignore far closer and presumably far easier targets?

Such a question was enough to make the green haired professor grit his teeth slowly in frustration. Such a thing had never occurred at all in the history recorded in this book and it was really beginning to eat away at him.

The incidents in the past where absolutely massive amounts of intelligent Grimm have appeared had been anomalies in and of themselves, impossible to truly explain and now it looked like this most recent event was going to be perhaps be an even bigger anomaly than those.

And that didn't sit well with Bart at all. Information was as vital to hunters as aura and semblances and skill were. Information could change the tide of any battle as easily as flipping a coin. To have so little – or rather more like none at all – on this series of incidents was extremely worrying.

For while there was no telling when such an oddity could occur, Bart could only fear that it'll be happening again far too soon.

* * *

She awakened slowly, almost groggily, coming out of a most pleasant dream, one of death and destruction of all mankind.

In her dream, screams had filled the air and carried across the land with the wind, the streets and buildings and walls of the kingdoms painted a deep red from blood.

Truly, a most pleasant dream she'd had and one she'd been experiencing for a quite some time now as she'd slept for weeks on end.

She'd have slept on for longer, content to let things play out until her little pawns finally completed the opening move, but alas she'd been awoken when the memories of her foot soldiers finally ebbed their way into her subconscious.

And as she mentally viewed what her fallen kin had seen, their ends brought about by the blond and blind young man who still pretended to be 'like the rest,' she couldn't help but sneer in glee.

Soon enough, it'll be time to begin the 'calamity' again.

* * *

 **Read this a few times over, hope it doesn't say anything unnecessary… because I really want to avoid giving away too much early on. At any rate, even if that does end up being the sad case, it'll still be a long string of surprises for you all once I get around to the reveals of this story.**

 **Heh heh, not much else to say really other than that I will try, as always, to be a little bit speedier when it comes to updates.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	11. Chapter 11

Man oh man, Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator has yet to lose its charm despite the past month or so. And here I'd been worried that the further I got into MOM mode, the more frustrating it'd be to continue on with it. And to some extent, I wasn't entirely wrong – damn self-destruct function and the AI's rabid dog actions during it – but so far it's been a hell of a lot more fun and easier to play as opposed to Xrd's MOM mode. Now if only the AI wouldn't block so damn much near the end of every match…

Heh, that aside, sorry for the wait; work picked up in pace plus I finally started looking around a bit for a job in my field, admittedly a fairly low level one for me to see if this is really something I'd want to do the rest of my working life. Sigh… I really am an indecisive bastard.

Whelp, onto the chapter!

Chapter 11

"Begin again!" Glynda proclaimed for the students to hear.

Many groaned painfully in response, as most of the class had to first pick themselves up off the floor in order to ready themselves again.

The normally stern and nigh-unbendable combat instructor actually sympathized with the students a bit.

It was the beginning of the new week and with it came the introduction of the new lesson plan for virtually all of her students, even the older ones that were to graduate this year – provided they keep their grades up, of course.

Having talked it out amongst the rest of the faculty, Glynda had decided that most of the damage the students had taken during the Forever Falls incident was mainly due to a lack of both environmental awareness and lack of skill in regards to fighting multiple enemies all at once.

So to this end, Glynda (and Jaune by extension) had come up with something to try and correct these two 'weaknesses.'

Wearing extremely thick blindfolds that also went around the ears a fair bit, virtually every student was rendered blind and their hearing left slightly muffled as they were all spread out across the thankfully spacious combat arena.

All of the students having been paired up, they were to spare with one another like this until the end of class.

The idea behind this was mainly to make them improve their usage of their other senses in order to help themselves be more aware of things in their surroundings. However, given that they were first and foremost unused to moving with blindfolds on, let alone fight with them, the students were all proving to be more than a little clumsy in how they moved around.

It especially didn't help that they were all fighting with their weapons drawn and as such, whenever a gun was cocked or a blade hissed through the air, virtually everyone else would nearly jump out of their skin since they'd often ended up mistaking the attack to be coming for them.

It was enough to make Glynda sigh many times throughout the day thus far. While she admittedly had been taken aback by the many Grimm in Forever Falls, she'd held her ground with a fair amount of ease, relying on more than just sight alone to keep the waves of Grimm at bay back then.

While she wasn't exactly expecting her students to master this in a single day, she'd been perhaps hoping for a little more than what she seeing right now.

She was very reluctant to admit that perhaps the standards of hunters had fallen a bit since she had become one. For ever since the start of this exercise, she'd bore witness to Nora accidentally smashing a fellow classmate with Magnhild while her sparring partner hadn't even been close to being hit, another student awkwardly swiping at his sparring partner, Yang completely missing her opponent with her haymaker and young Ruby Rose leaping into the wall after overestimating the distance.

And this was just to name a mere _few_ of the things that had occurred, never minding the accidental(?) gropes that had taken place.

And on that note, Glynda couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow in slight worry when she recalled how hard that girl had suddenly been panting after grabbing her sparring partner's breast…

Well, back on track now.

"Ms. Schnee, try to take into account the sounds that are closest to you," the blonde woman said as calmly as she could, witnessing as Weiss missed her mark with Myrtenaster, evidently mistaking the sound of a scuffing foot several yards away for that of her opponent's.

The heiress didn't get the chance to reply when her opponent then used the missed strike to launch one of his own with his bo-staff, the attack actually connecting with Weiss' side.

Glynda merely moved on.

Initially, she'd wanted to teach the students both this and how to properly combat many enemies in accordance to their own combat styles, but now in hindsight she was glad that she didn't; if the students had tried to all gang up on another with these blindfolds on, things would've been disastrous to say the least.

As far as honing their unarmed skills go, Glynda recalled that tomorrow Jaune was to be teaching them all some more tactics that could be used. From what she and him have discussed on that in regards to this new collective lesson plan, Jaune wanted to first teach them the tactics and have them practice it a bit before having them wear the blindfolds again.

And now that she thought of the young man, she looked off to the other end of the arena, seeing him stoically observing some of the students closest to him.

Somehow, that is.

Now that she thought of it, given his lack of sight, just how sharply honed were his other senses? Was it enough to fully compensate for his blindness? He certainly had no trouble moving around at all nor knowing who was approaching him at any given moment.

Just what did he think of this situation?

Well, putting such thoughts aside for the moment, Glynda couldn't help but actually hum now as she walked further along, seeing something that rather surprised her.

Facing off against none other than Pyrrha Nikos was Blake Belladonna. And the two young women were doing surprising well when compared to the walking dangers their classmates were currently posing with their actions.

The redhead of team JNPR moved as gracefully as ever, but very slowly and more importantly, cautiously. In the few spars she'd taken part in thus far, she'd moved without hesitation, naturally flowing from one action to the next. Here, she clearly calculated every single step she took, her expression fierce yet nervous as she quietly took one step forward, Milo held in a defensive position.

Blake, on the other hand, was not quite as focused on the matter, for she seemed considerably more at ease with this exercise. While still hardly moving at her full speed, the sole Faunus of team RWBY – really now, just who was she trying to fool with that bow, Glynda silently wondered – circled around Pyrrha at a steady pace.

It was clear that she knew more or less where Pyrrha was at, but refused to go on the offensive just yet until more certain.

And that moment came not even a few seconds later when Pyrrha shifted her stance a bit, the armor she wore clinking slightly with the movement.

And so Blake pounced without even the slightest of thoughts, swinging a sheathed blade at Pyrrha. Slicing through the air audibly, Pyrrha heard it judging by the twitch of her right ear and raised Akouo in time to deflect the blade before swinging Milo in retaliation.

Glynda quirked both eyebrows now in genuine surprise.

While Blake's swing had been on the verge of missing Pyrrha's side, it still had been far more accurate than many other attacks she'd seen the other students perform thus far. Pyrrha's block in turn had been almost spot-on thanks to the size of her shield and her following counter had been just a few inches short of cutting off part of Blake's hair, the Faunus having not even attempted to dodge and instead only leaping back after Pyrrha's missed swing.

Both girls gripped their weapons tightly and managed to face one another despite the blindfolds, evidently aware of the other's presence now.

Glynda was most impressed and a little intrigued.

While Pyrrha's actions could be explained by her raw natural talent, Blake's receptiveness to this exercise thus far was a little tougher to explain. The Faunus was well-trained for a first year and plenty talented, but she was no prodigy like her sparring partner or her team leader. And her records don't show her attending any kind of combat instructional school like Signal… meaning she was either entirely self-taught or had received training unofficially. If it's the latter, then that would bring up the question of who had taught her…

Glynda hummed quietly to herself, her gaze switching in between Blake and Jaune, who now could be seen speaking softly to some of the students closest to his position.

Looks like there were more than a few mysteries to be solved this year.

* * *

Some time later, class ended and with this came the shuffling of all the students as they left the arena, groaning from various levels of pain, embarrassment, and relief. The training today had been a train wreck for most of them and they weren't particularly eager to continue the training again next time around, its now permanent status in class notwithstanding.

However, Blake wasn't exactly amongst this massive number of reluctant students.

For her, while the training was certainly going to be a harsh one to complete, she understood its purpose and couldn't have agreed more with it; many of them certainly could afford to be more aware of their surroundings, take advantage of more than just their sense of sight.

Then again, the B of team RWBY couldn't help but wonder if this not-quite-like-nor-dislike of the training could be attributed to her… checkered past, she supposed she should call it.

Having grown up more or less on the street and later having engaged in many illegal activities and crimes as part of the White Fang, the young woman had long since come to rely slightly on more than just her sight to get by. After all, just because she couldn't see someone sneaking up on her didn't necessarily mean no one was attempting to do so.

Yes, in hindsight perhaps this is why she had noticeably less trouble than other students adapting to this training, though being completely removed of her sight was certainly a new experience for her; those blindfolds were _thick_.

Blake was roused from her thoughts suddenly when she and her friends began to leave the arena, being some of the last few of the students to do so due to how many of them there'd been.

And her eyes couldn't help but narrow all on their own as she saw Jaune and professor Goodwitch standing by the arena's exit, bidding the students goodbye.

Just as she was about to pass the two by, she put her head down instinctively and strayed a bit to the right, placing herself closer to professor Goodwitch while also using Yang, who was standing to her left, as something akin to cover.

Something that right away she knew the blonde brawler noticed.

"Something wrong?" Yang even said just as they'd left the arena several seconds later.

Blake inwardly sighed and waited half a minute before responding, noticing in the process that Yang's question had also drawn the attention of Ruby and Weiss, both of whom looked a little roughed up from accidents earlier in class.

"…It's nothing really," Blake said, not wanting to tell them the real reason.

That being Jaune himself.

From the very beginning, she'd always felt something off about that guy and it hadn't just been her either; she'd noticed other Faunus perk up nervously whenever he'd passed by, their own personal feelings towards the young man aside.

At first, she'd been willing to shrug aside the uneasiness he inspired instinctively in her, but after witnessing the aftermath of the Forever Falls incident, where the disintegrated remains of uncountable Grimm literally painted the area black, she'd started to act much more cautiously around that man.

It was quite late of her to think so, but…

Jaune wasn't normal.

He just wasn't normal at all.

While he was certainly skilled enough to be made a part of the faculty, the sheer ease with which Yang and Weiss have recounted seeing him tear through the Grimm was unnatural. Surely, even other professors here would've had some level of difficulty doing so, right? So why had he been able to do so with such unnerving ease?

"It'd been unreal… he was tearing through them like paper!" Yang had said once, not very long after the incident a week back.

"Every single movement of his had no wasted energy. Everything he did had appeared to have a purpose," Weiss had admitted a week ago once they'd been all out of harm's way and able to assess the situation.

For the normally cheerful and fight happy Yang to go all wide-eyed like that and the normally still-somewhat-arrogant Weiss to easily admit to the man's skill level told Blake a lot about Jaune, if only about his power and more… unsettling side given how viciously he'd apparently torn through the opposition.

He was dangerous.

And unfortunately for her, while she'd like to keep such a thought to herself for the time being, her team didn't seem intent on letting her answer suffice for them.

"Yeah, that's a lie," Yang said casually, making Blake inwardly twitch at how she'd said. To think despite having known each other for only a brief time, the blonde was already easily capable of seeing through her deflections.

"Even a blind man could see you're being bothered by something," Weiss remarked.

Blake visibly twitched at that.

"Yeah! I bet even Jaune could tell!" Ruby said obliviously.

Blake twitched yet again.

"…Oh, it _is_ about him, isn't it?" Yang said with a slight smirk. "Aww, don't tell me you're shy around him."

Blake bowed her head in embarrassment. Just how could she have been figured out yet so misunderstood about him so easily?

And so for the next five minutes, she had to spend it all explaining to her team just why she didn't have a crush on the young man.

Perhaps this was now another reason to avoid him entirely.

* * *

Jaune held back a sneeze.

Felt like someone had been talking about him. Maybe Blake Belladonna, he wondered?

The reason why she came to mind first was because it'd been fairly obvious to him that of all the students, she'd been keeping a certain distance from him, at least in the wake of the Forever Falls incident.

With his Aura Vision, it wasn't all that hard to see her grey colored aura often hiding behind the light gold aura that Yang Xiao long had whenever he was in sight.

He wondered why this was though…

 _Perhaps she senses something amiss._

Mhm, in hindsight yeah, that would be the most obvious thing now. Must be because of her sharper than average senses. Or rather that inherited sixth sense of hers too. Same thing must go for all of the other students with such a thing too.

Alas, there wasn't much he could do about that, despite his wanting to. He wasn't really sure just what Blake thought of him, but she was probably right about him on parts, in which case her attempts at staying out of his 'sight' was understandable.

Not quite effective, but understandable.

That said, he did wish she'd stop. He really didn't mean any harm to her and the others if that was her main reasoning for avoiding him. But as life would have it, this wasn't exactly something he could just go around telling her or anyone else… that'd just lead to certain questions being asked that he'd have to tiptoe around and that'd only prompt more questions that he'd be unable to answer.

And even if he did, a majority of people would deem him crazy or at least delusional in some respect.

And would likely prompt some kind of interrogation from some certain individuals…

…Much like the one looking at him.

"Are you feeling alright, Jaune? You look like something is weighing heavily on your mind," Glynda said as she folded her arms across her chest.

The two of them were currently remaining behind in the arena simply to collect their individual thoughts before taking their leave.

And it would seem his thoughts had been like an open book to some extent. "Just worried if this training will end up being too much for them…" He motioned towards the exit that the students had all left through. "I know it's the only the first day, but I hadn't been expecting so many to do so badly."

A brief memory of earlier came to mind at that instant, Cardin having accidentally smashed his own toe with his mace.

He watched as Glynda's head, portrayed by a beautiful purple aura, nodded in agreement. Her green eyes, appearing more like green emeralds to Jaune thanks to his Aura Vision, softening. "I share your concern. But it must be done. Otherwise the students would only have the hard way to learn in the future… and while we cannot coddle them, I'd rather do everything in my power to avoid having that happen."

Jaune nodded in agreement. If Glynda only knew, truly knew, what was out there… the sometimes stern, sometimes soft woman would be training the students nearly nonstop to prepare them for the inevitable.

But that was why he was here at Beacon, watching over his sister aside. Hell, if anything, keeping an eye on his sister was perhaps one of the better ways to stay on top of what was to come.

After all, there was always that one chance that they'd come for Jeanne… even if the girl would likely never know why, should such a thing happen.

"…That being said, can I ask you something, Glynda?" Jaune eventually said just as the two of them had finally been about to leave the arena.

His thoughts on the current situation sorted out for now, there had been one thing about Glynda that had been somewhat bugging him, but over the past week, he'd kept on forgetting to ask or was otherwise distracted.

Glynda paused in her walking, her heels clicking loudly to Jaune's ears. His Aura Vision aside, his other senses had been sharpened considerably to help him compensate for his genuine lack of sight.

He could literally hear the blonde woman quirk an eyebrow in confusion. "Of course," she said, however.

"Just why did you hold back during the incident?" Jaune then asked after receiving the okay.

The following silence was brief, but no less deafening. "I'm sorry?" Glynda couldn't help but say in response.

Jaune scratched the side of his face a little nervously. "While I was only able to get a 'glimpse' of your way of fighting before I went off to help the students, I couldn't help but notice how stiff your movements were… like you were consciously forcing yourself to fight in a way that you weren't quite used to… not to mention how odd your usage of aura felt."

"I see," was the crisp reply. Glynda sighed, a not particularly bad sound to Jaune – she sounded less angry and more along the lines of surprised still. "Well, you're not wrong in a way; I've changed how I've fought over the past years. For you to be able to tell though… I suppose I still have a lot to learn."

"But why?" Jaune asked.

He could tell Glynda had narrowed her eyes. "…The way I used to fight isn't necessarily suited to protecting others nearby."

Now it was Jaune's turn to quirk an eyebrow, but alas he had nothing to say to that beyond: "Why's that?"

Glynda didn't answer, not immediately. And when she did… "I'd prefer to keep that to myself for now."

She began to walk again, her heels clicking a little more loudly than they'd been before. It made Jaune wince a little. He'd gone too far with his questioning.

"Come along, Jaune. We need to discuss if any revisions should be made to the training," Glynda called out.

"R-Right…" he muttered as he walked off after her.

Looks like there was a lot more to everyone here than even he'd originally thought. He just hoped that whatever else people had in store would be enough to make a difference.

* * *

Some odd hours later, at night now, Roman took a long drag of his cigar, puffing out some rings of smoke as he leaned back in his chair.

For the past hour, he'd been keeping himself busy by going over the plan several times, telling his little helpers – those damned idiot White Fang goons – how it'll be playing out.

And so far, to both their ears as well as his own, the plan had been fairly sound. The SDC was supposed to be dropping off their large Dust shipment in just a few days as he – and by extension, Cinder – had been aware of originally at precisely 9 at night, its unguarded state meant to fool any normal would-be Dust thieves into thinking it was just some late night shipment of random and valueless supplies.

When it arrives, a bullhead was to quickly arrive onto the scene a few minutes later and drop Roman along with his crew, who'd then crack open the shipment and start hauling out the crates of Dust to be airlifted away. A smaller and more mobile bullhead would then simultaneously arrive to take Roman and his forced-upon helpers to safety.

Fairly simple and effective – easy in and easy out all in the span of maybe five minutes if things proceeded a little slowly.

So why was the master thief feeling so worried right now? Easy: because this all seemed a little _too_ perfect.

Seriously, an unguarded shipment from the SDC arriving at such an isolated pier at such a convenient time in the night? If it wasn't for the fact that he knew the Schnee family to collectively be arrogant, Roman would've considered this a huge trap in the making.

Still, for these facts to even exist, it still felt really off to him. He was probably being a little too paranoid here, but he supposed there was always a chance the Schnee had secretly gone to Vale's police or even worse some huntsmen to keep a watch over the shipment from afar.

Grunting as he mulled this possibility over, Roman tapped Melodic Cudgel on the floor a few times. Finally, the tapping ceased and he flicked his cigar away with his other hand. "Neo," he called out.

And in the blink of an eye, his accomplice and even his friend arrived into the room with the sound of breaking glass – a telltale sign of her semblance being used.

Having appeared in the air, the short and petite young woman flipped through the air and landed gracefully on the edge of the table, legs crossed and her umbrella currently being leaned against her shoulder.

She smiled almost coyly at Roman, silently asking him what was on his mind.

Said man eyed her for a moment as he collected his thoughts. "That damned woman doesn't have you scheduled for anything soon, right? And our other 'business venues' are in order?"

Neo nodded in response to both questions.

Roman couldn't help but grin a little viciously. "How do you feel about coming on a quick trip with me in a couple of days?" Nothing like being too safe, right?

The smirk Neo now had plastered on her face was answer enough for him.

* * *

Ruby, having been in the middle of a late night snack now, couldn't help but shiver as chills coursed down her spine.

Maybe her unintentional self-injury from earlier was having an effect? She knew she shouldn't have used her semblance like that during training – jumping into the wall at Mach speeds really hurt!

As the chills came to a stop, however, the young leader of team RWBY couldn't help but hum a little in thought. Well, that certainly had been a sudden thing. She sure hoped it didn't happen again.

"For the last time, I don't like Professor Arc! Now will you stop with the comments?!" Blake suddenly said at a surprisingly high volume, nearly making Ruby fall out of her bed in surprise.

The young girl couldn't help but giggle nervously a little. Ever since the end of their final class, Yang had been mercilessly teasing Blake about liking their new and mysterious kick-ass (assistant) professor. And it was finally beginning to evidently wear down Blake's patience.

"Well, I'll stop once you explain why you're trying to avoid him~" Yang replied with that same playful grin Ruby had long since been accustomed to. Her older sister really knew how to mess with people sometimes.

Blake looked less than amused by Yang's grin, even less so than Weiss who was clearly wishing the two of them would quiet down. Ruby couldn't help but marvel at how well she was able to read her friend's/partner's expression in such a short amount of time, completely unaware that anyone with half a brain would be able to see her growing irritation.

"Because that man isn't normal!" Blake finally retorted, Ruby wincing a little as she saw the B of her team clearly fed up for good with Yang.

"W-Well yeah…" Yang said, actually looking a little cowed by how loudly and even viciously Blake had said that. "I mean, he is a part of the faculty and a lot of them don't seem all that there in the hea-."

"That's not what I meant," Blake hissed. "You and Weiss of all people should be able to see it! He isn't… he isn't quite a normal person at all!"

"W-What do you mean?" Ruby finally said now, squeaking a little when Blake turned her increasingly tense gaze towards her.

"Haven't you noticed how the Faunus students tend to give him a wide berth often?" Blake said.

"What of it?" Weiss now said. Was it just Ruby's imagination or did the heiress sound a little snappish at that comment for some reason?

Blake now rounded on the heiress with a steel piercing glare, making Ruby worry if a possible argument was suddenly going to break out over something. "All Faunus have heightened senses and this allows them to sort of detect when something is wrong."

"Like how dogs and other animals get nervous around things we can't see?" Yang suddenly said, her playfulness now gone. "Like in a horror movie or something?"

Ruby blinked a little. Did Blake's bow just move?

"…Somewhat like that," Blake said through gritted teeth. "Look, the Faunus students and even some of the human students tend to give him a fairly wide berth whenever he passes by. He may be a 'hot topic' among others and stuff… but they wouldn't do this without some kind of reason!"

"Uuuhhh, Blake?" Ruby dared to speak again. She even hesitantly raised her hand as if she were in class. "Does this have to do with you said earlier in the school year?" She just had to ask this; memories of when Blake had commented on the new faculty member being 'off' had come back to her just now thanks to her words.

"It does… and while I'd been content to simply make that comment earlier on and leave things be, now it isn't the case anymore," Blake replied. She looked down and sighed. "…He's dangerous. I don't know how or why… but he's some kind of threat, I just know it."

Such words were enough to render their dorm deathly silent, Ruby looking to see her normally loud and fussy partner and lively sister exchanging glances, the two of them looking unsure of what to even think. Ruby was more than certain she was sporting a similar expression as well.

"Well," Weiss then said, breaking the silence. "Let's indulge you a bit here – let's say that this man really is some kind of threat. If you and other students could tell, then surely the other members of the staff could tell too… in which case, why let him remain here?"

"Yeah," Yang said slowly, agreeing with Weiss by nodding along. "And just who would he be a threat to, Blake? From the looks of things so far, the only people who have to worry about him are the ones that try challenging him to spars." She said those last several words with an uneasy smile, trying to alleviate the heavy atmosphere.

Ruby watched that smile vanish when her words had no visible effect. "But in all seriousness, I think only the Grimm would have to worry about him," Yang said now, her lilac eyes seeming to look off into the distance as the memories of that incident likely came back to her.

Ruby couldn't help but nod in agreement… and secretly wish she'd been there to see him in action. He must be a real beast if her sister, normally hard to impress, could look like she did right now, with such a far off look in her eyes. Same thing goes for Weiss too, the snow white haired girl looking equally perturbed by whatever memories must be replaying in her mind right now.

Another sigh from Blake got Ruby's attention and she turned back to look at the normally quiet girl of the team. "I can understand that… but even then, I – and clearly, others – can't help but feel that he's dangerous in some respect."

"Well, you're going to need to clarify what you mean by 'dangerous.' Otherwise, how else will we know how to respond to what you're saying," Weiss retorted.

Blake opened her mouth to speak, only to stop partway, a strangled sound being released for a moment before looking down. Ruby could only look at the girl in worry when this occurred. "…I wish I knew just how to do that," Blake ended up muttering.

This only made Weiss sigh, partially in annoyance yet also equally in some kind of relief. "Well, then until you can define 'dangerous' for us, we should call it an end to this discussion for now." Huffing, the heiress threw herself surprisingly ungracefully upon her bed completely. "We have another long day in store for us, so we should stop with this nonsensical talk and get to sleep!"

As her partner immediately tried to get to sleep, Ruby could only look to her sister for some kind of help, only to see the buxom blonde shrug ever so slightly, her expression one of confusion and worry.

Then looking back at Blake and seeing the almost indignant expression on her face, Ruby had no doubt in her mind that to the B of her team, this talk was far from nonsensical.

And far from being over.

* * *

Despite what time it now was, Jeanne was still up as opposed to her much more diligent teammates – Nora included, amazingly – who were already sound asleep in preparation for the long days of training ahead.

Tossing and turning lightly while dressed in her onesie, the blonde eventually had enough and sat up in her bed, her hair that was normally pulled into a massive braid flowing everywhere, like some kind of blonde blanket.

"Darn it…" she muttered as quietly as possible to herself, not wanting to wake her teammates.

She was so excited about this new training in combat class, in spite of how painfully hard it was, to be able to sleep properly.

But there was more to her current predicament than just this. It was but an almost unconscious feeling, but it was one that she was somehow aware of nonetheless.

Something was bugging her, plain and simple. This was undoubtedly the true reason why she couldn't sleep right now.

"Muuuu, if only Jaune was here…" she mumbled tiredly. Back when they were both young kids, whenever something had kept her up like this, she'd always go to his room and snuggle against him until she finally fell asleep in his arms. It should be noted that this was a 'thing' that had persisted well until they were both in their early teens. Such was how much she was spoiled by Jaune.

And with how she was currently feeling, the blonde leader found herself wanting to do just this.

Unbeknownst to her, at the very same time she had this urge, Pyrrha's peaceful sleeping expression developed into a grimace.

This want of hers aside, Jeanne couldn't help but ponder what to actually do though. No matter how much she'd want Jaune to literally be right beside her right now, such a thing was impossible; she was aware of how odd it'd be to others given their ages and sibling relationship, never mind the fact that he was now a(n) (assistant) professor while she was a student.

With this in mind, the leader of team JNPR now had the dilemma of deciding what to do to pass time until she felt genuinely sleepy. Alas, given what time it was plus the fact her friends were asleep, her options were extremely limited.

Well, since she was up though, she might as well head to the bathroom really qui-.

Jeanne, having been getting out of her bed to do so, suddenly froze as an unknown sensation washed over her.

Their dorm had only the one window, which was currently open to let in a gentle and cool breeze from outside. Immediately, Jeanne altered her course to all but literally stick her entire upper body out of it.

Eyes wide, her mind alert, the blonde leader looked off into the distance carefully.

Just what the hell had that feeling been? It'd almost felt like someone had been looking her way and not in a pleasant way.

That was how it had felt like… but it hadn't quite been exactly the same.

Spending a whole minute looking around, Jeanne reluctantly pulled herself back into the dorm and all but tiptoed to the bathroom.

Had she looked on for another five seconds, she might have spotted a very small Nevermore fly off from one of the trees that her dorm directly faced.

* * *

 **And done! Whelp, up next is one of the chapters I'd actually been really eager to get around to writing! Hope I'm able to write it out as well as I'd been envisioning!**

 **On a related sidenote, does it seem like things are moving a little fast to you guys? If so, then don't worry – it'll be a while longer before things really begin to let loose.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	12. Chapter 12

Seriously, I can't say thank you enough! Finally remembered to check my email and couldn't help but be shocked at how many new messages I got saying someone favorited/followed this fic! I'm honored!

Now to suddenly switch gears and on a note related this particular chapter, well, I'll be cutting straight to the chase so to speak – it'll be starting AFTER Blake had run off from her argument with Weiss. More or less, as far as that particular part of the RWBY canon goes, it plays out the same here in this fic, so I'm not going to potentially bore you guys with a repeat.

But!

To that same token, this is the chapter when things will finally begin taking off for good!

Now onto the chapter! Be forewarned – this'll move fairly fast!

P.S. Again, many thanks for the favs/follows!

Chapter 12

Peter could only grin as he spoke of his past during class right now – times of great peril and triumph, with moments of uncontainable manliness and virility in between those times.

Like that one time he wrestled a massive Ursa to its death whilst half-naked, the Grimm's would-be victim – a girl in her late teens – having swooned over him after his epic victory.

Ah, childhood, how he's missed it sometimes. After all, how many ten year olds could have said they'd had older girls fawning over him?

Alas, his audience didn't seem to share his enthusiasm.

As expected, perhaps. And in this respect, as would be _un_ expected from him – ask any student about him and they'd say he was far too wrapped up in his own tales to notice their near-coma levels of boredom.

This, however, was false.

Peter was _keenly_ aware of how his tales of his youth drove the students to sleep or some other kind of discreet activity. However, their reactions to his (completely true) stories were far from bothersome to the jolly professor of Grimm Studies. If anything, this was intentional on his part.

Knowing the sort of pressures the hunter life will naturally place on them, starting with the many responsibilities they've already formed upon entering this academy, it's always been Peter's intent to provide some kind of small outlet for the students. And what better way to do that than to tell tales and see what they do to keep themselves genuinely occupied?

Well, that and it's always fun to see how many, if any, of the students actually do bother to pay attention to his lectures of his past battles. Never know who'll find his grandiose words interesting!

In any case, he hardly gave any homework, which he knew most students were genuinely thankful for.

And besides that, just why on earth would he give homework of all things? Bah, this was a Grimm Studies class! What better way for the students to learn about the ghastly beasts' individual weak-points than for them to fight the dark creatures one-on-one?!

Of course… he'll have to go and capture some more later tonight though. Hmm, could he perhaps get away with bringing in a Death Stalker…?

Well, that little matter aside, the robust professor couldn't help but look subtly to one particular spot of his classroom, where team RWBY sits.

With the B of their team being absent.

Ah yes, he'd heard only slightly of what's happened.

Apparently just the other day, the young Blake Belladonna had run off after a rather heavy argument with one of the others, the ever studious Ms. Schnee.

Peter lost his usual smile for just a second, which was hidden behind his massive mustache.

His heart went out to the worried looking trio. He'd had his share of team spats during his teens and similar situations had come about because of them. He hoped they'd be able to find their elusive Faunus friend – really, just who had that girl been trying to fool? – soon.

He just sincerely hoped that whenever their reunion would occur, it'd be under amicable circumstances.

But as far as tracking down the runaway girl first goes, he was fairly confident in how things could turn out – due to his not quite heavy workload, Ozpin had politely tasked the young Jaune Arc with keeping a figurative eye out for her.

While Peter will admit to still having some very slight reservations about the young blind man's experience, he was clearly skilled still and a quick learner.

He was certain Jaune could find the missing Blake in record time! And given his amicable attitude to the students, the girl was sure to be agreeable with him.

Just what could possibly go wrong?

* * *

Sometime later in the day, Yang ended up sneezing a little violently. She hardly paid this any mind, however; she was much more occupied mentally with the whereabouts of her missing partner.

Ah, just how could things have suddenly turned out like this?

It was still a huge shocker, what she and Ruby and Weiss had learned just the other day. The four of them had simply been enjoying a simple walk in downtown Vale, Weiss having wanted to scope out the competition for the Vytal Tournament, despite whatever excuses the heiress had weakly given… only to have stumbled across the aftermath of a Dust shop break in, which had apparently been executed by the White Fang.

Oh, if the blonde had known what this simple sight was going to spark that day, she'd had led her teammates well away from the area by their noses if push came to shove. But because she didn't, it had ended up sparking an argument between Weiss and Blake regarding the Faunus in general and the White Fang more specifically…

…An argument that had ended just as abruptly as it had started when Blake had, albeit clearly unintentionally, ended up revealing she'd once been a _member_ of the terrorist group.

Man oh man, even now as she walked from one class to the next, the blonde brawler was still in something akin to shock over that bit of information. While Blake being a Faunus was a surprise as well, it honestly wasn't too earth-shattering in hindsight now that she'd thought of it.

But her normally so quiet and reserved partner having been a part of the White Fang? That was still making her mind all but shut down every time she tried to digest it.

"And it's not just me either…" the young woman muttered, sparing a brief glance towards her sister and friend. Even now, they looked just as stupefied as her over what they'd learned, Ruby more so than Weiss who seemed rather indignant.

Yang supposed she couldn't blame the heiress _too_ much – her family had, after all, been all but personally at war with the White Fang for years, with a great number of casualties on both sides.

But that being said, as the trio silently entered their next class, Yang silently resolved to step in if – no, WHEN – they find Blake. Weiss may have a lot of questions for the runaway girl, but Blake was clearly not a member of the group anymore nor did she seem all that eager to do any harm to anyone. Like hell she'd let Weiss attempt to let out any pent up anger of hers on Blake.

Oh sure, she wanted to know the full story of Blake's former involvement too, but that could be done far more politely than whatever the heiress next to her seemed to be envisioning.

But of course, first thing first…

"We need to find her." These words were uttered by Yang so quietly that not even Ruby, who was normally able to pick up whatever the blonde said, seemed to even notice her whisper.

Nor did Ruby appear to notice the now worried looking expression that crossed Yang's face.

She could only hope that when they find Blake, she'll be okay.

* * *

Blake sneezed suddenly, an action that prompted her ever so persistent 'companion' to react appropriately.

"Gesundheit," spoke the young man walking just a few feet behind her.

The cat Faunus merely grumbled, looking only momentarily at the young man behind her.

A tall and well-muscled youth that just so happened to be a blond monkey Faunus – Sun Wukong was his name and he'd been accompanying her virtually everywhere almost ever since the other day.

Blake could only sigh now.

Oh, how things had turned out.

She and her team had been out in Vale for what amounted to a little walk, having stumbled at one point across some odd girl named Penny… before eventually coming across a taped off Dust shop that had supposedly been raided by the White Fang.

But it simply couldn't be them, at least that is what Blake forcefully thought. For all her former group did, robbery of a Dust shop was hardly something they'd slink to… but alas, this was something that had been beside the point at the time.

Following that little event, the ever so pompous Weiss had started to speak quite badly of the White Fang and the Faunus in general, something that had immediately prompted her to retaliate verbally and starting an argument… one that had ended when she'd inadvertently blabbed out not only her heritage, but her (former) ties to the White Fang.

Oh, the looks of utter shock, disbelief and betrayal on her teammates' faces at that instant had all but frozen her to the spot at the time… until she did what she did best and ran off before the others could recover from the mental blow.

She'd turned off her scroll and had made it a point to stay as far away from Beacon and the areas of Vale that Beacon students usually favored, having no intention of confronting her now former team.

Surely, after such a sudden 'confession' they'd want nothing to do with her.

Alas, her annoying blond companion seemed to not only be capable of reading her mind now, but also being painfully stubborn about his opinion on the matter. "You know you can't just run from them forever, right?" he said as he placed his hands behind his head, stretching back in such a way that he almost intentionally seemed to be showcasing his abs to the world. Blake will reluctantly admit that she couldn't help but notice this.

"Sun, we've already been over this… I can't just confront them about this. Not yet anyways," she replied, keeping her tone even.

Earlier, after much persistence on Sun's part, the raven haired girl had opened up to him a bit at a café, speaking about her past a bit prior to joining the White Fang and a bit about the White Fang itself… and while she was grateful to him for having listened, the monkey Faunus was really beginning to grate her nerves with how he insisted on her and the rest of team RWBY needing to talk this out.

"Cause first you want to make sure about the White Fang, right?" he asked, wanting to confirm what she'd said earlier.

"Mhm…" Earlier during her slight heart-to-heart with him, the conversation had eventually veered off from her past to her new issue with her friends to what the White Fang now appeared to be doing with their time and forces.

There was simply no way that they'd resort to Dust shop robbery like this. Just no way at all; they'd had other means of obtaining Dust, so going around taking it from Dust shops was simply out of the question for them. It was impractical and unneeded and… and while they may have fallen from grace over the years, there's no way they'd stoop to the level of common crooks, right?

Blake's fists clenched tightly at this uncertain thought.

No. Weiss and those policemen at the scene the other day… they were wrong! The White Fang couldn't have committed that robbery!

"So then, how to go about it?" Sun then asked. "I mean, it's not like you can just call up one of them and ask casually about what they'd been up to, right?"

"Simple. We go where the Dust is," Blake then responded strongly. Hotly, even. It was clear that she was getting worked up despite how collected she normally was. "You said you overheard something about a late shipment being set to come later tonight, right?"

Her new companion having been an unruly stowaway on a ship the other day, Sun was a little privy to what was going on due to him having evidently stuck his nose in places it normally didn't belong.

"Yeah," Sun replied evenly, his expression changing to one of worry. He clearly knew what Blake now wanted to do. "Oh, I don't really like that gleam in your eyes."

Blake huffed in bemusement at the comment. "Well, then let's go see if anyone will be waiting for its arrival," she said, ignoring his words.

He'd stuck his nose somewhere it didn't belong to obtain that otherwise unneeded info. Time for her to now do the same.

And hopefully, she'll put to rest her doubts about her former comrades.

* * *

A couple of hours pass by with surprising speed. As classes at Beacon and other schools in Vale ended for the day and slowly yet surely, shops began to close up one after another, Roman sat quietly in the bullhead docked in one of Vale's few abandoned industry zones.

Although he couldn't actually see or hear businesses and people beginning to wind down with the setting of the sun, he was very much aware of what was going on. He'd been doing this for years, after all.

He had to remind himself that tonight would hopefully be no different, especially when he has Neo at his side for back up.

He looked to the petite woman in question just as the White Fang grunts around him began to settle into their seats, the pilot of their bullhead taking his sweet time making sure everything was in working order up in the cockpit.

"Almost time to get started… you ready, Neo?" Roman asked of his longtime accomplice/friend.

The dainty woman flashed him a confident grin whilst twirling her closed umbrella in her hand.

The grin was one that he now mirrored.

"Alright then… time to start this damned night show," Roman said.

Let the fun begin.

* * *

More time passes by without issue and now it was night, around 9 to be more precise.

And Jaune had never been so unhappy to realize such a fact right now.

Having been given the task of looking around for Beacon's runaway student, he'd set out today to search as much of Vale looking for the young Ms. Belladonna.

With his Aura Vision, he'd been hoping to have a fairly easy time finding her since he can see a person's aura through walls and the like, but alas he'd had no luck; Vale was a very big city and there was no telling where Blake could've gone.

At any rate, he was certain that the B of team RWBY was still here in Vale – a runaway she may evidently be, but he didn't think she had it in her to fully commit to it.

This still didn't make his job any easier, however.

"Why did they wait this long to have me look, though?" he muttered to himself. It hadn't been until today that Ozpin had finally asked of _anyone_ to try and locate Blake. It was certainly an odd thing to do, but perhaps it was because the headmaster had been thinking – or even outright hoping – that the girl would've returned on her own during the past day or so.

Well, whatever the reasoning for this late action, it didn't change the fact that Jaune now found himself wandering around Vale, having just finished up looking through its entire commercial district before finally heading closer to the more industrial areas.

Perhaps the girl is camping out somewhere near the docks or something? Blake struck him as being someone who enjoyed the gentle ocean breeze.

And given how empty the entire area is bound to be combined with his Aura Vision, if Blake really is there, she'll stand out like the sole candle lit in a pitch black room.

A shame that his Aura Vision's effective range is only 6 kilometers. It'd be great if the range was greater, but he works with what he has.

So, taking his time to 'look' all around himself, Jaune was very much eager to see if his guess was correct as he ventured further into the industrial area, more specifically towards the docks and pier. If he turned out to be wrong, well then at least he could spare a moment to enjoy the ocean breeze himself before resuming his search.

Alas, he found himself not having to search for very long, at least not with his eyes.

A bullhead, a fairly small one, suddenly passed by overhead, causing Jaune to immediately perk up. Its engine had to have been modified or something to generate so much less noise.

Looking up in time to catch a 'glimpse' of it, however, he ended up nearly pausing in his walking in sheer shock.

He counted no more than 15 passengers, their auras highlighting their forms greatly to him.

Most of them were wielding high caliber weapons. Some of them had extras furry ears or horns. One even had a small tail, not unlike that of a lizard.

Members of the White Fang, no doubt.

But there was one aura in particular that had stood out to him amongst those upon the bullhead – one whose his encounter with had sparked his hiring as an assistant professor.

"Torchwick?!" Jaune nearly yelled in surprise.

How could the man be here of all places?!

 _Freed, perhaps, from wherever he'd been kept?_

It was certainly the only thought that made sense, one that made Jaune consciously nod in agreement. It was also a thought that ended up breaking him out of his odd reverie, just as the bullhead fully past by and kept on flying in a straight line towards…

"…The pier," Jaune deduced.

And as he looked off into that particular direction, he narrowed his eyes as he finally took note of something.

It was extremely faint looking due to the distance – pushing the boundaries of his Aura Vision's range, since this entire area was just that large – but sure enough, he could see the familiar grey aura of Blake, the young woman appearing to be next to an unknown person with a brilliant golden form of aura that reminiscent of Yang.

Jaune immediately altered his walking direction for the pier. Taking a brief moment to assess the landscape around him via the auras that had passed by just a moment ago in that bullhead, the blind young man tried to deduce how fast he could make it there.

It wouldn't take him long at all – his speed was at a fairly high level, after all… but what would slow him down is the terrain, what with all of the buildings in the way. And he'd rather not smash his way through them all like some brute. That would just be needless property damage.

But still, he needs to get there quickly. For among the passengers of that bullhead, there'd been one other person there, a fairly short woman from the looks of it, with a beautiful mix of white, pink, and brown aura… almost like neopolitan ice cream, now that he thought of it.

But her aura had been quite large, it having shined brighter to him than any of the other passengers aboard, indicating that her combat strength was considerably higher than the others, easily higher than Torchwick's and a majority of the students Jaune had 'seen' at Beacon. And if she truly is working with Roman Torchwick, she couldn't be anything else than bad news.

Blake and her unknown companion were in extreme danger.

 _Need to hurry…_

Indeed.

Scooting back a few feet, Jaune girded himself for a leap.

While he likely wouldn't make it there in time to outright prevent whatever Torchwick and the White Fang had planned, he'd at least be there in time to keep Blake and her new friend safe.

He had to.

He leapt.

* * *

Blake couldn't believe her eyes at all.

From where she and Sun hid behind a huge freight container, she and her companion watched in complete silence as a modified bullhead suddenly made an appearance, lowering to perhaps fifteen feet above ground before its doors opened up…

…To reveal members of the White Fang now leaping down, with assault rifles in hands.

Followed by one individual she'd never expected to see in the company of her former comrades.

"Alright you braindead monkeys!" Roman barked as soon as he jumped down from the bullhead, his cane striking the ground with an audible tap. "You better remember what to do! Now get moving!" He strolled forward arrogantly, as if he was the master of this entire land and the White Fang members were his unfortunate servants. This was an image further reinforced by how the Faunus in question immediately responded to his commands whilst the bullhead above them flew off.

The unbridled shock she felt at seeing her worst fears confirmed was now replaced with anger, all of it directed towards the cane-wielding criminal. He was evidently as racist as he was rumored to be, if his disgusted expression as one White Fang member passed by him was anything to go by aside from his comment.

"Looks like your old pals have fallen pretty far…" Sun commented quietly. On her behalf, he seemed to sound pretty sad about this.

It was enough to quell Blake's rage for the moment and draw a pained expression out of her. "I'd known for a long time that the White Fang had been changing and not for the better either. But even then, after I'd left them, a part of me had still hoped that…"

She trailed off, unable to finish that sentence. Had that really been what she'd thought? For the last few years of her time in their group, the White Fang's mindset regarding humanity and Faunus rights had shifted to outright hatred regarding the former. It had also been when their tactics had become noticeably more guerilla and violent in nature. It hadn't been until her final mission with Adam, when he'd so callously dismissed the lives of the train crew, that she'd fully realized how twisted he and the group had become and had been what solidified her desire to leave the group for good.

And yet, perhaps out of some buried sense of loyalty to what the group was originally like, she'd thought the White Fang to never be the kind of group that would sink so low as to petty crimes like thievery.

But not only were their current actions proving her wrong, it also turned out to be worse than she ever would've willingly imagined.

To think that they'd even partner up with scum like Torchwick-!

"Looks like they're here for that Dust shipment…" Sun suddenly muttered, causing her thoughts to cease instantly. The monkey Faunus next to her could only grumble to himself when the massive freight containers that had been dropped off earlier were busted open a moment ago, with half of the White Fang goons that had shown up dedicating themselves to carrying out the many boxes of Dust that had been within. "Just what are they going to do with all of that Dust?"

"I don't know," Blake said honestly in response. Her anger began to return as she eyed Torchwick, the man yelling at the Faunus with him to hurry up. "But I'm going to find ou-!"

"W-Wait! Don't!" Sun said suddenly, fiercely.

She'd been about to pounce out from their cover and go for Torchwick. Gambol Shroud had already been partially drawn. But Sun had managed to grab hold of her left arm and drag her back out of sight.

Needless to say, the B of team RWBY found herself less than pleased by this. "What are you doing?!"

Sun winced at the intensity of her angry whisper, but seemed unapologetic. Slowly he poked his head out of their cover and pointed with his tail. "Look to Torchwick's left side."

Blake did so – and was immediately shocked.

Just how long had that odd looking woman been there? She seemed to have a similar outfit to Torchwick's, so was she his personal accomplice or something?

"…She's bad news. I can tell just by looking at her," Sun whispered.

Blake could only agree, for as she looked at the short woman, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"Look, I'm all for a good fight here and there – nothing like some thrills – but I don't think this is something we should be jumping into just yet," Sun then said.

Blake's grip on Gambol Shroud tightened. "But…"

She paused suddenly when the unknown woman began to twirl her closed umbrella around, appearing to be silently humming to herself…

…Right before her gaze suddenly focused on where they were at.

Oh, the way the woman's eyes seemed to switch colors back and forth was something that Blake knew was going to haunt her for a while.

But alas, she was too stunned to be creeped out too much.

"We've been ma-!" She'd begun to tell Sun.

Only to be cut off when what sounded like shattering glass echoed throughout the night – with the unknown woman suddenly appearing in between her and Sun.

Two pairs of eyes went almost comically wide at this and both she and Sun immediately attempted to leap away.

They were successful in this endeavor and blessedly so as Blake saw the woman's umbrella unveil a thin blade from the top of it, said weapon having stabbed at the spot she'd just been occupying a millisecond ago.

Blake couldn't help but gulp as she leapt off the freight container they'd been on; if that had struck her, then aura or not, it would've drawn blood.

But she immediately zoned this fear out, her years of harsh self-taught training and experience taking over her now.

She may have leapt off the container a little awkwardly to avoid this woman's attack, but she managed to shift her center of gravity so that she flipped and briefly brushed against the side of another container stacked nearby with her feet.

Quickly kicking off of it, she propelled herself towards Roman, who had immediately gone on to look at where his helper had appeared at. As such, he was unprepared for when Blake nearly tackled him.

Grunting a bit in the process, Blake managed to land just a foot before the criminal and whirled about him, swiftly drawing her blade and putting it to his neck just as she got behind him.

"Oh for fu-?!" Roman had begun to say, only for Blake to stop him by way of kicking him in the back of his left knee, bringing him down to the ground. She crouched as well to retain her hold of him.

"Back off!" She may have yelled this out for virtually everyone to hear, but she mainly aimed her words at the mysterious woman just as she delicately leapt down from the container above.

Blake couldn't help but inwardly gulp now; what a vicious smile she ended up looking at.

Looking around for a second, she did spot Sun… who currently had several of the White Fang members pointing their weapons at him. Looks like he'd misjudged where he'd jumped down to.

This made Blake inwardly seethe. Sun may have very well been right – they'd jumped into something quite dangerous.

"Hey," Roman said, grabbing her attention. Blake couldn't help but notice his expression and tone of voice. The bastard only seemed marginally annoyed by his current position.

She maneuvered her blade even closer to his neck, the sharp steel on the verge of touching his skin.

To her anger, he still looked annoyed and nothing else. "Just where did you and your monkey boy pop out from, hmm?" He sneered. "For that matter, just how did you even know about this stunt of mine? Dumb luck?"

His arrogance was utterly disgusting. It took all she had to keep from spitting in his face, if only out of spite.

Looking away from him, she cautiously eyed the woman who seemed content to just stand and watch.

She then directed her attention to the White Fang members, all of whom now seemed to be eyeing her. Judging by some of their slack jaws and white knuckles, some of them appeared to recognize her.

And they didn't seem too happy.

Nonetheless… "Brothers of the White Fang! Just why are you working with this criminal scum?! Can't you see he's turned you all into little more than thieves?!"

She looked around as best as she could, hoping to see if any of them would react to her words in a favorable way.

But aside from some looks of confusion and even a bit of guilt, not one of the White Fang members appeared to be willing to change anything.

Roman chuckled, the sound reverberating in her ears. "Trying to turn your animal pals to the light? Fat chance of that. You see, your group and I have come to an agreement of sorts-."

"And I'd like to know about it!"

Everyone, bar none, blinked.

Blake blinked.

Roman blinked.

His unknown helper blinked.

So did Sun and the White Fang members there.

That voice had sounded familiar to her and had sounded close by. But where-?

And that had been when something came falling from the sky, landing little more than seven feet away from her and Roman.

Not gently, either; the ground shook a bit from the landing and cracks formed a little.

And that was when they all saw that it wasn't something that had fallen, but some _one_.

"Well, I could've stuck that landing better…" Jaune muttered, the area now so silent that everyone undoubtedly heard him. He tapped lightly at the cracks his landing had formed and grimaced.

Then he gazed up from the ground at Roman, Blake unable to suppress a shiver as he did so. Because of how tightly she was holding Torchwick down and close to her, it also seemed as if his blind eyes were locked onto her.

"Anyways, I actually managed to hear your yelling and stuff just now," he began. He smiled a little sheepishly. "Any chance you can explain your little operation to me?"

Roman could only stare at the young man, his demeanor markedly different. Blake could literally _feel_ the glare that the criminal was leveling at the man. "Heh, what a surprise to see you again, you little shit," Roman spat out, his words sounding as arrogant as ever, but with more than a touch of anger. "As for your question, heh… well, I wouldn't call it a little operation…"

He then looked upwards when another sound began to fill the air and Blake couldn't help but follow his gaze.

She cursed inwardly; the bullhead from earlier that had dropped him off was back.

And from the way it was ominously hovering above them now, Blake had the sneaking suspicion it wasn't simply back to pick Roman up already.

"Well, would you look at that," Roman said mockingly. "My ride's already back! And with us only having gotten some of the Dust so far… thanks for screwing me over, kiddies."

Blake's gaze was pulled back to the ground she saw movement out of her periphery vision – and gasped lightly.

The petite woman from earlier. This entire time, she'd been so eerily quiet that she'd somehow managed to move closer to Jaune without anyone having even noticed her move at all.

And her umbrella still had its blade drawn as she approached.

"But hey, how about a parting gift before we all take off?!" Roman then yelled at Jaune.

"Professor, beh-!" Blake yelled out at the same time.

But it was too late.

For the woman had already struck forth.

* * *

 **Sorry if this somehow seems rushed; it really isn't!**

 **Again, as stated in the above AN, I simply saw no reason in basically regurgitating everything that had happened in canon for the most part. So I hope you all understand!**

 **Heh heh, but alas, now is when things will finally begin to get under way, so please bear with me!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	13. Chapter 13

Damn, how giddy I felt writing this chapter! This chapter for sure marks the beginning of a divergence from the canon, so from now on things will (or rather, should) be fairly unpredictable for you guys! It all depends on me keeping up the quality and even trying to increase it!

Here's to hoping that I succeed in that particular venture!

Chapter 13

The entire scene played out to Roman in slow motion, as if he was watching some kind of recording reduced to a 1/10th of its normal speed.

The blind young bastard that had foiled him all those weeks ago was standing before him, with his ever trusty accomplice and friend Neo swinging her bladed umbrella towards his neck with incredible speed.

He watched with bated breath as the blade of the umbrella came ever closer to the punk's jugular. Aura or not, the hit would definitely draw blood.

Oh how he counted the milliseconds to seeing said red liquid spewing all over the area right now. The Faunus bitch holding him hostage still crying out in despair would be just an added bonus; she seemed to almost care for this guy's safety somewhat, after all.

Except.

The hit never came. The punk writhing futilely about as he bled out… the scene he'd come to imagine every now and then didn't occur at all.

For just as Neo's attack was about to strike its mark, the blind guy actually fucking _dodged_ it, tilting his entire upper body in the same direction the attack traveled, his head also moving as well.

Reality seemed to resume its normal speed at that point and Roman could only watch, stupefied and feeling very much cheated as Neo's attack _missed_ completely.

Then he watched, along with everyone else, as Jaune then flipped to the side when Neo, apparently undeterred by her missed initial attack, twirled to get closer and deliver a high kick, the blind punk barely dodging that particular attack.

"Whoa!" one of the White Fang grunts exclaimed. For once, Roman almost agreed with the Faunus shithead.

Neo was easily one of the quickest and most agile fighters he'd ever seen in action. For this guy to dodge a surprise attack of all things from her was making his mind blank out.

But watching the guy land on his feet, his expression one of slight surprise and even confusion was enough to rekindle the rage he'd felt.

Noticing that the little kitty-cat vigilante had loosened her grip on him somewhat – probably just as dumbfounded as him, he silently thought – he immediately capitalized on it by suddenly rearing back his head, smashing it into her face hard enough to make her cry out in surprise and stagger back.

Slipping out of her grasp now, he stood and promptly turn and kicked the girl several feet back.

He then turned to face the blond man that had given him so much indirect grief these past few weeks, anger evident in his face. "Don't just gawk, get him!" he yelled at everyone, from Neo to the White Fang mooks Cinder had oh so generously provided for him.

He seriously hoped he could ask for his figurative money back after all of this.

Unfortunately, that probably wasn't going to happen – the second he'd roared at them to get to work on this guy, the cat bitch and her monkey boy finally rejoined the scene, the grunts that had had the latter at gunpoint having redirected their attention to the blind guy long enough for the monkey Faunus to get out his weapon.

"Shit!" Roman swore loudly when he heard said guy immediately go on the offensive, his weapon – some kind of red and gold staff – being effortlessly twirled about, striking down all of the White Fang members closest to him.

Meanwhile, looks like the cat girl from earlier was gunning for him.

"You're mine!" she yelled at him.

Roman had to divert his attention away from the blind punk to fend off the blade that came swinging his way. He grunted under the sheer force of the swing. He hadn't been able to fully bring up Melodic Cudgel in time to properly block it.

Nonetheless, he still retained his wits and silver tongue about him. "Heh, sorry kitty, I'm not into minors! Or animals!"

Oh what a flash of anger that was in her golden eyes. Good. If he gets her angry enough, she'll be bound to make some mistakes.

And so as the cat Faunus before him began her assault in earnest now, Roman couldn't help but grin savagely.

The sooner he dealt with this girl, the sooner he could refocus back on that punk.

Maybe, just maybe, this night heist will turn out to be a blessing in disguise for him.

* * *

Neo had to admit that she was impressed. What a rarity this was.

Following her _second_ failed attack – the high kick to the temple – she'd paused just long enough afterwards to reassess her target, who'd patiently stood where he was.

For someone that was blind, he'd dodged those two attacks quite well, with little wasted movement and with lightning speed. This guy may have initially seemed clueless when he'd showed up – his entrance notwithstanding, that is – but as the saying goes, looks could be deceiving.

This was all the more apparent when her every little movement now ended up with his eyes – his supposedly blind eyes – following her effortlessly. She didn't know if he was relying on his sense of hearing to track and if the eye thing was simply some habit of his, but in either case…

…She could tell now that this guy felt off somehow.

"Err…" the blond young man suddenly said. He sounded as sheepish as he did before. "Any chance we cannot fight it out?"

Neo blinked once. Then twice. Then thrice just because.

Did he really just ask that?

If she had a voice, she'd be laughing aloud right now. But because she didn't, her body simply shook with quiet amusement.

For the briefest of seconds then, she turned her gaze to the right, where there almost now seemed to be a sort of invisible barrier between her and blondie here and the others. Looks like that other blond guy – the monkey Faunus – had taken to fighting all of the White Fang grunts that that bitch had handed over to Roman.

Meaning that, as if through the workings of some god, it was just her and this odd blind guy over here, in their little corner of the world.

How very amusing.

It'd be a shame now to just let this strange opportunity go to waste. She'd been in the mood for some good exercise anyway.

So in response to the young man's question, she deliberately ran the blade point of her umbrella across the ground, the sharp steel audibly scraping against it.

The blond guy winced before her, but she had no way of knowing if it was in response to the noise or to what the action ultimately implied.

Then – to her surprise yet again – the boy actually _looked away_ from her. Or looked away as much was possible for a blind person.

Following his eyes, Neo saw her good friend easily fending off the cat Faunus, holding his ground fairly well even when the girl began to circle around him like crazy, with several clones – her semblance, no doubt – appearing at random to try and get through Roman's guard.

Neo ended up looking back at the blind man a second later, however, when she heard the rustling of clothes. She looked back just in time to see the blind blond remove his black coat. Then with an almost hesitant slowness, threw it aside into the shadows of the freight containers.

It was a really simple action, but one that made Neo reassess the young man again. Perhaps he wasn't quite as naïve as she'd just thought him to be.

"No helping it, I guess," he muttered, cracking his neck in the process.

Neo sneered at this. Finally, a little bit of action.

Looking the blond up and down, there didn't appear to be any chance of him hiding a weapon – his dark blue pants, while a little baggy for better movement, weren't thick enough to completely hide any compact weapons. His long sleeve black shirt, which she idly noted to have some stylish grey lines on it, likewise was loose fitting on the man but again was just small enough to leave out the possibility of concealed weapons.

Well, except maybe a knife, perhaps. But Neo could confidently say right off the bat that this man was clearly an unarmed fighter.

Now time to see how good he w-.

She blinked once as this thought almost fully crossed her mind.

That was all she had to do for the blind man to suddenly disappear from her sights.

Every single figurative alarm bell in her mind immediately began to go off and like any experienced fighter, the petite woman followed her instincts.

And it turned out to be a good move as she twirled forward like an acrobat to avoid what would've been a powerful chop to the back of her neck.

In the middle of her twirling, Neo tried to reorient herself, looking at where she'd just been standing-.

-Only to see the blind man's dull and faded blue eyes all but staring directly into her own. From little more than a foot away.

What sounded like a massive cannon came careening towards her from the ground at Mach speeds. With her umbrella closed, she managed to use it as a guard, narrowly deflecting what had turned out to be an upwards kick.

Her action had been executed perfectly, but the sheer power behind the blow had been so great that even after deflecting it, she still ended up sailing to the side now.

A quick shifting of her center of gravity, however, allowed her to gracefully turn her impromptu flight into a flip that allowed her to land feet-first on the ground.

She'd hardly stood back up fully before her opponent had closed the distance, unleashing exactly three punches that she was immediately forced to dodge.

Her sneer from a moment ago was gone, the amused twinkle in her differently colored eyes having upped and vanished completely as well.

She'd severely underestimated her opponent, it'd seem – his punches just now may have been quite direct, but they all had been aiming for her vital spots, namely her solar plexus, kidneys, and throat.

She could literally _feel_ the power behind each punch as they nearly connected each time. Dodging them had been the right to do; blocking wouldn't have mitigated enough of the damage to really matter and deflecting them aside would likely result in her being knocked back anyways.

She'd have to be evasive with this man.

Well, that wasn't too big a deal when it came down to it; evasion was more her style anyways.

Now that she'd had the brief second to readjust herself, Neo felt more prepared for this man and it must have somehow become noticeable to him because his face scrunched up a bit after the three failed blows.

Neo watched carefully when the young man suddenly backed off for a moment, his stance somewhat defensive.

Well, she certainly wasn't going to complain.

Pressing a button alongside her umbrella's handle, the blade protruding from the top retracted. Better to save it for later, when a genuine opening presented itself.

But in order to have that kind of opening, she'd have to force his hand first.

A bit of her smile returned to her face as she now ran quietly forward. When she was little more than four feet away from him, she lightly leapt at him and unleashed what looked to be a fierce roundhouse kick.

And like she expected, he responded.

With his right hand, he reached out in an attempt to grab her shin.

Only for her to soundlessly chuckle as she then reared back her leg. It'd been a feint.

Then with her other leg, she lashed out with a kick aimed for her foe's chin… only for him to move his head slightly to the right, avoiding the strike by a mere inch.

He suddenly moved forward at that instant, before she could even begin to rear back her leg. With his already outstretched right hand, he grabbed hold of her shin and then suddenly brought his left fist up at blinding speeds.

Right towards the back of her knee. He was intending on outright _breaking_ her leg in _half_.

And yet.

The instant his fist made contact, her entire form shattered completely, not unlike glass.

Reappearing above the man, Neo flipped throughout the air and hooked the handle of her umbrella right around his neck and used her own (very light) body weight and momentum to yank down as hard as she could.

Had he been ready for such a thing, this action may have very well failed to budge him much. She could tell as she pulled that he was quite heavy despite his slim build. Must be more muscular than she thought.

That said, because he'd been caught off guard, Neo was rewarded with the blind man being pulled right over her head now and head-first towards the ground directly before her…

…Only for her eyes to widen in shock when he suddenly twisted in midair and ended up landing in what looked like a rather painfully low crouch.

But better that than having his skull bashed against the ground, Neo supposed, looking at the situation for the briefest of seconds from his point of view.

Her surprise didn't stop her, however, from responding instantaneously to his action.

With the handle still somehow hooked around the man's neck, she essentially had him pinned despite his clearly superior strength. Yanking down suddenly, Neo watched him lurch forward, his painful crouch keeping him from fully utilizing his strength and size.

With this, she now let go of the umbrella and dashed forward and attempted to deliver an axe-kick to the back of his skull.

But again, he amazed her by using his own right leg to counter her attack, moving forward enough to now nearly do a handstand to pull this off.

Because his leg had smashed into hers before she could properly do the attack, she was knocked back several feet, nearly hopping on one leg the whole time from how unbalanced he'd suddenly made her.

She now grit her teeth in something akin to worry – because Neopolitan, professional criminal fighter, does not _worry_ – as this gave her opponent enough time to now actually get up, removing the umbrella's handle from around his neck and throwing it to the side.

Then he quickly stomped at the ground, hard enough to send up some pieces of it – which he then snatched out of the air and threw at her.

Managing to lower her leg, Neo found herself still a little unbalanced, but this did little to stop her from fully recovering said balance even _as_ she dodged the several small pieces of debris that came her way, pivoting not unlike a ballerina to do so.

The whole time, she kept as much of her eyes on the blind man as was possible. She watched as he slinked away to the side, close to the shadows of one of the warehouses that resided near this port.

And as this occurred, she now understood why his clothes had been fairly plain in nature and dark in color; it made it that much easier for him to almost fully blend into the shadows as he now attempted to circle around her.

But alas, the man hadn't fully succeeded in this regard. Neo may be lacking a lot when compared to those damned Faunus from the White Fang, but her senses were fairly honed from years of experience and she was able to make out his rapidly moving form without too much difficulty.

As he began to approach her personal space now, Neo couldn't help but smile like a child.

The danger aside, this was already shaping up to be the most fun she's had in a long time.

* * *

He'd been right to take on this woman. While their battle thus far had been a fairly short one, it was clear that this petite woman was leagues above Blake and her companion in skill.

This was a purely objective opinion that was fully reinforced when he noticed a shift in the woman's aura as he approached.

She was starting to _enjoy_ this fight. Wow, what an interesting personality she had there.

Now bursting forth from the shadows of the warehouse behind him, Jaune lunged forward at the woman with a spin before attempting an axe-kick, a sort-of payback for what she tried just seconds ago.

As he'd come to expect, the woman dodged it , flipping to the side and promptly dashing off.

Jaune couldn't help but worry as this happened. She was rushing straight for her weapon – an umbrella of all things. A very sturdy umbrella with a sharp blade hidden inside of it, but an umbrella nonetheless.

Weapons really do come in all kinds of forms nowadays.

He dashed after her as quickly as he could – which proved to be a good thing as it looked like his speed exceeded hers by a small yet still noticeable margin.

Despite knowing this, however, Jaune hardly felt at ease.

When it had first turned out that a peaceful resolution was impossible, he'd attempted to take her down in one chop to the back of her neck, just as he'd done to Torchwick all those weeks ago. But living up to the feeling he'd gotten about her, the diminutive woman had proved far more experienced a person than her criminal partner had been by dodging it.

The few attacks he'd launched after that failed 'end-it-quickly' attempt had then been an effort on his part to better assess her agility, but now it may have already come around to haunt him. He'd had the element of surprise back at that point and because he'd opted to test her ability to better determine how much force to use against her instead of pressing on the attack, there was no doubt in his mind now that this battle would drag on much longer than he'd originally wanted.

At least he took off his coat prior to this.

Now he was about to overtake his smaller foe, just as she reached a hand out for her umbrella.

He wasn't about to let that happen now.

Slowing his pace for a split second, he girded himself and leapt forward, right arm reared back as if about to throw a lance. Only when he lashed out, he had nothing to throw save for his own fist.

The force at which it hurtled forward was immense – even with aura, Jaune doubted that his foe would even _survive_ his attack. Which made sense since his aim was to literally _punch a hole right through her_. While he honestly didn't want to do so, putting her down for good would be for the better in the long term. One less person to worry about, so to speak.

However, the second he launched this sure-kill attack, he immediately 'saw' something wrong.

His opponent's beautiful intertwining mix of pink and brown and white flashed for a moment… and when his fist drove through her form, it shattered audibly, just like glass.

 _Just like earlier…_

Jaune couldn't help but grimace now. For his foe now reappeared in his line of sight directly to his side, moving past him with a swiftness that would make even the fastest of animals weep in envy. And with her umbrella back in hand, lit up by her unconscious pouring of it into it, Jaune managed to turn slightly in time to see his foe attempt to stab him in the back of his shin as the hidden blade made its reappearance.

Thankfully, he managed to raise his leg in time to avoid potentially being stabbed – and then promptly slammed his foot down in an attempt to crush the umbrella.

The young woman, however, seemed to read his action in advance because she then opened her umbrella before he could even fully do so, causing its open form to actually halt his action for a moment.

 _Aura reinforcement._

This thought hit him the second the action happened and it resounded within his mind in the most clinical of tones.

Truly, this unknown criminal accomplice of Torchwick's was a skilled combatant; there'd been absolutely no lag time between opening up the umbrella and reinforcing it with aura. Normally people still learning such a skill had to focus aura into an object first before being able to use it.

Yet she did it simultaneously…

Well, that aside, this thought did little to stop him from reacting in kind. Because of how much aura the woman was using to make her umbrella even sturdier, it wasn't difficult at all for Jaune simply stand atop it now without issue. He even pivoted around and attempted to axe-kick her…

…Only for her form to shatter yet again upon being struck.

"So that's how it is…" he muttered as her aura showed up again in his pitch black world several meters away. She now sat demurely upon one of the freight containers, open umbrella in hand as if it was raining.

Normally such an action would inspire annoyance or even outright rage in someone; no one liked being looked down upon, after all.

But Jaune, at the risk of sounding arrogant, liked to think he broke that mold a bit, for he felt nothing at all upon seeing this.

Instead, he merely focused on what'd he just confirmed for sure.

Clearly, this person was using her semblance. No ifs, and, or buts about it. All semblances required some measure of aura to use and usually the aura would react in such a way as to indicate the person's semblance.

In the case of Pyrrha Nikos, her aura would shoot forth from her body and encompass the metal she wished to affect with her magnetism. Ruby Rose's semblance of speed would cause some of her aura to flow at great speeds in her legs whilst another fair amount of it would seep even further inwards inside her body, toughening it so that it can endure the high speeds her semblance could potentially achieve. When Weiss Schnee used a glyph during spars, bits of her aura would literally disappear from her body and reappear in a new and much more complex form, each glyph looking different from the next for different effects. Yang Xiao Long's aura would actually absorb kinetic energy that strikes her, 'bloating' itself for lack of a better way to put it, with a majority of the gained energy being released every time she throws an attack afterwards. Blake's aura would be expelled from her body, model directly after her form and literally gaining color and additional detail upon fully exiting her body.

In the case of this petite woman, however, the aura flowed differently.

It would flash, not unlike how a camera sometimes flashed when a picture is taken. Only thing is, this 'picture' of her physical form was then expelled from the body posthaste, not having time to fully develop, for lack of a better way to put it. Because of this, it would come out being quite brittle, very much like glass.

"But that's not all," Jaune mumbled to himself, his eyes narrowing as he continued to think.

When the false image – a physical mirage for all intents and purposes – was formed, her real form would temporarily loss its physical aspects, rendering her something akin to a specter while the mirage took her place in reality. However, this odd type of invisible intangibility was nowhere near lengthy in its time limit; at most, it would last for two seconds, but that's all the agile criminal needed to reposition herself elsewhere.

Without his 'sight,' Jaune doubted he ever would've noticed this, let alone come to this kind of conclusion about her semblance. No doubt if he had physical sight, it'd look as if she was teleporting or something.

But thankfully, that wasn't the case. It may have taken him a few times to get used to seeing it, but now he has a hopefully decent understanding of her semblance, things should be much easier now.

 _Now it's time to kill her…_

As he sensed the umbrella wielder sneer down at him, his fists tightened considerably.

Now to do what must be done.

* * *

If someone had asked Sun Wukong a few days ago how he'd picture meeting a cute girl would go, he'd have boastfully said something along the lines of 'flash my abs at them and bam! Scooooorrrreeee~'

But now he found himself triple checking such a what-if response of his… and had one particular White Fang mook not been so hell-bent on smacking his face in, he'd have probably done it himself, if only to try and knock the stupid of himself.

Seriously, of all the things he'd pictured happening when he followed – not stalked, _followed_ – one Blake Belladonna around the other day, he never would've imagined essentially getting her life story to an extent…

..Or having to try and fight for his life against the White Fang of all people.

Who, he must say, sure had no problem trying to kill him right now despite him being a fellow Faunus. Blake sure hadn't been kidding when she said they've changed a lot.

But while he could sympathize with the collective plight of the terrorist group, having once been discriminated against himself growing up, his feelings on the matter hardly stopped him from whacking said stubborn mook with his gun-chuks – called Ryu Bang and Jingu Bang.

Said whack made a very satisfying cracking sound, the White Fang mook's aura having been depleted enough for the hit just now to finally knock him out.

However, Sun hardly found it in him to feel happy over it. He may like some action every now and then, but not to the point of potential deaths for anyone involved.

Of course, another mook also now trying to shoot him from a distance may also have a hand in his lack of joy.

"Yeesh! Take it easy, will ya?!" he yelled at the goon in question as he deflected two accurate shots with Jingu Bang. Due to the range, firing in kind would do little good; with his weapon's gun component being a shotgun, the spread would do little damage to the goon's aura from this distance. He'd have to close the gap to do any real damage.

Fortunately, he was quick on his feet and even quicker with his weapon.

Weaving from side to side as he dashed forward, Sun easily dodged each ensuing shot of the goon's rifle, switching his weapon into its stuff form to swat aside the rounds he couldn't dodge in time.

Thanks to his weapon's newfound reach, he also didn't have to get too up close and personal with the White Fang member in question to strike back. Thrusting his staff forward, it connected solidly with the goon's gut, knocking all of the air right out of him before Sun decided to finish the job by sweeping his legs with the staff to knock him down and then dealing one final swing with it to the downed mook's face.

"Guh!" was all said person had to say before falling unconscious.

Allowing himself a brief smirk, Sun used his tail to snatch the rifle out of the downed White Fang member's hands, throwing it well out of the way so that no one else could try grabbing it.

This was about the only reprieve he got, however, for three more members still remained, a fact that he was nearly painfully reminded of when one of them tried to charge at him.

"Whoa!" Back-flipping over the charging White Fang member, he kicked off of the man, the force sending him flying head first into the ground.

That was when the other two opened fire on him.

Switching his weapon to their nun-chuk forms, Sun found little difficulty in deflecting the shots.

There was just one issue.

"Oh… damn…" he muttered.

Both of the remaining combatants had proceeded to walk forward at a steady whilst firing, spreading further and further out in order to flank him. Their bursts of bullets controlled in nature, he found himself unable to do anything other than to continue deflecting the rounds lest he be shot.

And while he had plenty of aura still, bullets were still a danger.

For while aura may passively boost all physical abilities and may be actively focused to increase one particular trait, when it came to receiving attacks, aura was little more than a nice cushion. It may soften the impact of attacks and therefore by extension lessen the amount of actual damage and pain received, but it wasn't a perfect defense – depending on how much aura one had remaining and its quality as well as the type of attack received and its strength, aura may lessen the damage by a lot or only by a little.

Against far more direct and physical attacks such as punches or kicks, any trainee worth his or her salt would be able to take a dozen or so hits before the pain of the blows really starts to get to them or leave actual bruises upon them. Against bullets, however, which focused on penetrating specifics spots – the spots they're fired at – aura is less effective due to the concentration of force behind each round.

Of course, if a blow's strength exceeds a certain threshold that varies from person to person, then aura will hardly provide much protection at all.

So, needless to say, Sun wasn't eager to risk getting shot up and seeing the results.

Which only left him frustrated.

"Damn it!" he muttered beneath his breath.

These two were good; they were timing their bursts so that one could reload while the other kept him pinned down with suppressing fire.

Furthermore, they were hardly the last of the White Fang members here – there were still several more remaining, though they were focusing on hauling ass from what Sun could glimpse off in the distance. With several large crates of Dust in hand as well.

And the bullhead that had arrived just a moment or two ago was still hovering remarkably quietly in the air, clearly awaiting the Dust carriers to get a little closer before lowering itself for pick up.

Well… this certainly wasn't looking good.

But then to Sun's surprise – and to the surprise of the White Fang goons there – a voice suddenly cried out.

"Leave them alone!"

* * *

Blake could scarcely believe her ears. Perhaps she'd been hit harder than she'd thought by Torchwick – God above, the criminal scum could hit hard when he had to – because there's no way that her friend(?) would be here…

"Ah, little red!" Roman drawled out, turning from where he stood over her knocked down form. He reared his head back to look up at the rooftop of the warehouse nearby.

And following her gaze, Blake saw two people.

One of them was that odd girl, Penny she thinks… but the other person held her attention the most right now.

"Leave my friend alone!" Ruby yelled at Torchwick. The young leader of team RWBY looked most indignant.

But Torchwick merely laughed it off. "Man, what a night this is turning out to be… guess what they say about plans and first contact is true!"

His back was turned to her, his attention now entirely on Ruby. Blake may not have actually paid this much mind, but her combat instincts did and her body capitalized on the opportunity unconsciously.

Their 'fight' had been a fairly brief and one-sided one, she having angrily lashed out at the thief over and over again in increasingly reckless ways… all of which Torchwick had easily deflected before delivering several hard hitting blows that had knocked her down into her current position.

With his attention off of her for the moment, it was time to get some genuine payback…

Or so she thought.

Just as she'd tried to lunge at him from the ground, Gambol Shroud held tightly in her hands, the criminal had somehow sensed her and immediately spun around.

She didn't see his cane coming, but she sure as hell felt it when it made contact with the left side of her face, directly next to her eye.

She couldn't help it – she cried out when it hit. "Ah!"

"Blake!" She heard Ruby call out to her with nothing but worry in her voice. As she landed harshly on the ground again, she could even hear the cloak wearing girl begin to whip out her beloved Crescent Rose.

Only to be rudely cut off when Torchwick turned back around and fired off an explosive round at Ruby.

"No!" Was the only word Blake, even when still feeling the stinging of pain, could yell as the shot clearly took the young leader by surprise, her silver eyes widening as it neared.

Thankfully, Ruby was able to guard against it with Crescent Rose, still in its untransformed state, but true to its name, the explosive round Torchwick fired still ended up blasting the girl right off her feet and out of Blake's line of sight.

"Ruby!" now cried out the other girl, Penny.

Just what in the world was she even doing here? It was a question that only vaguely passed through Blake's mind as it was much more preoccupied with Ruby's condition now and nothing else.

Had she not been so focused on her friend's condition, she may have noticed the somewhat unusual shift in this enigmatic girl's attitude as she leapt down…

* * *

Neo was having herself a very hard time and she wasn't sure if she should be excited by this fact or not.

Following her narrow escape from his attack – regaining her beloved weapon in the process – she had taken a moment to cherish her outsmarting of her blind foe by looking down on him from one of the freight containers.

But what had ensued right after she'd leapt back down had utterly quashed whatever feelings of triumph she'd felt.

Something had changed.

Something had changed.

Something had changed and she had no fucking idea what it was.

The instant she'd jumped back down, the young blond man had all but blitzed her, having thrown an elbow strike that had only narrowly missed her… and instead ended up striking the bottommost freight container instead, smashing right through its side as if it was made of something more brittle than glass.

From there on, the two of them had resumed their initial game of attacking and dodging, with the diminutive woman having focused much more on the latter than the former. And with reason too:

There'd been far fewer openings for her to exploit.

With narrowed eyes, she barely managed to avoid a knee strike to her chin by skipping to the side and then spinning around her foe… only for him to follow it up with a spin of his own, a powerful low kick that likely would've broke her legs in half had it not connected with her semblance instead.

And using said semblance to avoid his strike and reposition herself to his side, she took aim with her blade-tipped umbrella and tried to stab him in-between his ribs.

But instead of being rewarded with the sound of steel piercing flesh and the sight of blood spurting out, the blind man instead brought his free arm down in a chopping motion suddenly whilst twisting his body away from her.

On instinct, she managed to halt her own (failed) attack and tried to pull back. And to an extent, she succeeded – she herself was completely unharmed.

Her umbrella, on the other hand…

Skipping back several feet away from the blond, Neo let loose a silent growl as she glared at the now completely broken tip of her umbrella. The blond bastard had outright _shattered_ its hidden blade.

Well, shit. This was actually kind of bad. Her blade had perhaps been her only real weapon against him. While she herself could pack quite a punch, the weight difference between them as well as the evident difference in physical prowess meant that at best, her blows would be little more than bee stings to this punk as her friend had oh so lovingly called this blind young man.

Nonetheless, she supposed she could try to whittle him down, bit by bit… but did she have enough aura to last long enough to accomplish this?

And what's more, why did it seem like he was getting used to her fighting style? He was blind, for crying out loud!

And incidentally that was when he moved.

Neo's eyes widened as the blind man put on a burst of speed so great that he was little more than a blur to her eyes. The instant this happened, she immediately twisted her body oddly, as if trying to bend backwards without doing so all the way, tilting her head to the right as much as possible in the process as well.

A gust of wind passed her by just as this occurred and in her periphery vision, she saw the blind man reappear on her other side for a second before blurring out of sight yet again.

Now she rolled forward suddenly, all but smashing herself into the ground when a gust of wind made itself known yet again around her body.

Or rather, around more specific parts of her body.

She couldn't believe it – the bastard had gone for her vital spots as he'd passed by. One set of fingers had narrowly brushed against her _neck_ the first time around whilst the other set had tried to grab her damned _spine_. The second time around just now, she'd nearly had her kidneys punctured from behind along with a major vein in her thigh.

If she hadn't dodged in either occasion…

Rolling to a stop, Neo paused upon noticing something she'd never seen before: her hands shivering as they were placed on the ground.

She was feeling _scared._

How? Why? As skilled and as strong as this guy was, she clearly had the edge in sheer agility and actual combat experience! She could tell just by how uncertain he'd been moving at first! How could he now be swiftly changing the tide of battle like this?!

A booming sound – a God damned _sonic boom_ – alerted her about the still present danger. A danger that now just so happened to be coming at her directly from above in the form of a massive overhead punch.

It was too fast for her to dodge.

It was too fast for her to use her semblance in time against.

And so with a great reluctance, there was only one option left for her to take.

Having already been lifting herself up, it hadn't been too hard to position her arms in such a way as to attempt deflecting the blow, her tightly gripped umbrella hardened with as much aura as she could pump into it smashing like a raging river into the side of the incoming fist.

But the incoming fist hardly slowed or budged upon contact.

Death all but a millisecond away from her, Neo only had one final thing left to do.

Flipping the switch on her umbrella, she opened its parasol and with it being empowered by her aura, its durability and opening speed had improved considerably.

And it had evidently been something that the blind blond hadn't been expecting, for it successfully managed to divert his punch just a few meager inches to the side.

Which was all it took for the blow to miss Neo and end up striking the ground instead with all the force of a self-destructing bullhead.

The ground all but erupted when the blow struck, the entire area shaking violently as chunks of the ground were knocked into the air… along with Neo herself, who was sent flying back into a freight container with enough force to drop her aura levels to around 20%.

Her vision swam as she ended up slumping to the ground, her aura only protecting her a bit from the effects her opponent's punch had wrought.

Though she could hardly focus much on anything, her body still started a bit when the young man lifted his fist from the ground and started to walk towards her, his footsteps just heavy enough for her to hear even in her disoriented state of mind.

The closer he approached, the more Neo couldn't help but panic; as she tried to stand, her limbs only ended up flailing about, not unlike those dumb teens she often saw in those B rated horror movies she liked watching every now and then.

But just as the man finally neared her, left fist cocked back to finish her off, a bright light suddenly went off, enveloping the world around them.

Right before it disappeared, leaving Neo alone to know only darkness.

* * *

 **Apologies for the wait, but as you can tell, I made this chapter a bit longer than usual. Hope it makes up for the waiting!**

 **Not much else I could really say on the matter other than that I hope this chapter lives up to the standards you guys have for it. Oh and that the ending will have you looking forward to what the next chapter has in store, of course!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	14. Chapter 14

Anyone watch Fate Kaleid? I've heard a lot about its plot and stuff over the many past months and from I have heard recently, I guess episode 11 of 3rei was less than great for a number of reasons. Hell, Chibi Reviews even ranted about it! Prompted me to hunt down the Drei chapters and start reading it from where episode 10 of 3rei left off… and holy shit, the Miyuverse version of Shirou is a genuine badass! Before I knew it, I read from chapter 23 all the way up to the most recently posted chapter in one sitting! Loved that flashback arc of his!

Now it's giving me fanfic ideas, ha ha. I need to learn how to control myself!

Now with that bit of randomness out of the way, onto the chapter!

Chapter 14

While this had been her first genuine taste of combat, Penny Polendina had thought she did rather well, at least up until the end of her offensive.

When the thief Roman Torchwick had fired a cheap shot at friend Ruby, she will admit that she'd felt anger at that action and had immediately aimed to repay the man for it.

And repay him she had, having used her several blades to tear into his group of White Fang members and knock them all about handily with the criminal himself having made haste in finding cover.

She'd made it a point of keeping track of how long it took her to knock down all of the White Fang members – combat data was most useful in seeing her limitations – and had clocked her initial attacks to have taken only 17.62 seconds from start to finish in fully incapacitating them all, barring Roman.

A satisfactory result all things considered. Her father will hopefully be proud.

However, that had been where she'd slipped up and not quite in a way that she and her father had ever really expected.

Just as she'd been about to drag and blast out of the sky that bullhead that Roman had somehow acquired, her sensors had picked up a most odd anomaly that they hadn't been able to process until now. And as a result, she'd immediately switched gears, taking aim at where the anomaly was located at and promptly fired her particle beam which had originally been intended for the bullhead.

It hadn't been until the instant after her beam had been fired that she saw with her own two eyes who exactly she'd shot at – the blond haired man she and Ruby had seen briefly in the distance upon their initial arrival.

Her eyes had then widened with horror when her particle beam had struck the blond man suddenly in the back, her attack enveloping his entire form completely as it had blasted a straight path through the freight containers and the (thankfully empty) warehouse that had lied well beyond them.

Oh how horrific this was! When she and friend Ruby had initially arrived, before the latter had yelled out to Roman Torchwick to leave friend Blake alone, her new friend had muttered 'professor?!' in complete surprise. No doubt she'd been referring to the blond man she'd just struck.

And this was something that was then reconfirmed as said girl reappeared next to Penny.

"P-Professor Arc?!" Ruby literally squealed as she stared in horror at the outright _melted_ pathway that the particle beam had made in its wake.

Penny had never felt so ashamed of herself – she'd unwittingly attacked an ally! How would she ever make up for this?!

She was snapped briefly from her thoughts when Ruby went dashing towards the undoubtedly grievously injured professor, even passing by a stunned looking friend Blake and her unknown blond companion as they too stared in shock at what had just happened.

Steeling herself, she then followed after Ruby, now hoping to see if the professor was alright.

So focused was she now on this new objective that she failed to pay any further attention to her surroundings…

* * *

Roman inwardly swore up a storm.

The Dust theft was a bust, to say the least. How could it not be with how beaten up his men now were?! And while he liked his odds against any of the pipsqueaks one-on-one, he wasn't so sure taking all of them on, especially now that freaky auburn haired girl.

Seriously, just what is she, a goddamned cyborg?! He knew he was hardly one to ever talk, but just how in the hell is that fair?!

Well, no choice but to cut his losses and retreat for now. This situation was seriously FUBAR now.

But firstly, he wasn't leaving alone.

Oh, like hell he was going to try and save _any_ of the third rate goons the White Fang had lent him – to hell with them. If this was the best they could do against a bunch of freaking teenagers, trainees or not, then they deserved whatever the law dishes out at them.

No, his concern now was Neo.

Thankfully, depending on how he looks at it, when that freaky cyborg girl had fired her 'little' energy beam, it had struck that blond haired bastard. Hopefully it'll kill him and take him out of his hair for good.

It also had the pleasant effect of sorts of Neo being blast clear across the area and towards his general direction. Looks like when the beam had struck that blind punk, the impact was great enough to just blast the featherweight woman away.

Which still didn't stop him from wincing when he took a look at her before picking her up – Neo was hurt _bad_. Whatever had happened during her fight with that blond punk had really drained her of aura and the shockwave that had blasted her his way hadn't done her any favors either, her aura now low enough for her to be showing plenty of bruises and small scraps from her impromptu flight just now.

His one and only true companion was out like a light and didn't look to be waking up anytime soon under normal circumstances. She'd need to be attended to once they were clear of this dump.

Ah and what do you know? There came their ride just now, the bullhead silently lowering to just six feet above ground, more than enough for him to leap.

That's Perry for him; truly the only reliable beast among the Faunus he's met from the White Fang.

Now just to walk on quietly out of here before-.

"You're not getting away!"

Shit.

* * *

Blake had been so caught off guard, first by that Penny girl's surprising display of ability and then by her unintentional attack upon the enigmatic and dangerous Jaune Arc that she'd completely forgotten about Torchwick until now.

She couldn't help but chide herself immensely for such a thing, her current state of health and mind notwithstanding.

Still, she managed to remember him just in time to turn and see him with that woman in his arms just as he'd been quietly dashing up to the bullhead.

"You're not getting away!" had naturally been the very first words to come to mind and had been unconsciously spoken on her part, with an amount of anger and determination that she'd never quite experienced before.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she'd broken into a run, pouring all of her remaining strength into trying to catch up to Torchwick. Gambol Shroud was clenched tightly in her hands, ready for action yet again.

But unfortunately for her, it hadn't been enough.

Despite how brief this event had been, she'd taken some fairly nasty hits and it showed in her speed, which was barely half of what it was at her peak condition. Roman on the other hand was still pretty fresh and it showed when he too broke into a run at her yell.

She immediately felt tempted to attack from afar, use the ribbons of Gambol Shroud to grab the criminal scumbag and yank him-.

-Only to find her reared back right arm gently restrained by Sun.

"Don't bother," he said softly as they both now watched Roman quickly leap into the open side of the bullhead. "He was too far away anyways for any of our weapons to reach in time."

Both of them watched in silence then as the bullhead beat a hasty retreat, just as sirens could now be faintly heard off in the distance.

It wasn't until several seconds later that Blake's mind cleared itself enough of its rage for the events of tonight to now fully hit her.

There was no denying it – her former comrades were now working together with Roman Torchwick of all people. They'd pointed their weapons at her without hesitation, having been willing to kill her if need be.

And now… Roman, evidently the one still behind all of these robberies with the White Fang in tow, had gone free, slipping right through her fingers.

The emotions that now came to her were nearly too much to immediately handle.

Indeed, all she could do for the moment was to clench her teeth and fists, holding back the pain she now felt.

* * *

When the unusually quiet bullhead suddenly put the figurative pedal to the metal and took off not so quietly now, Ruby heard it loud and clear as she kept on rushing towards the end point of Penny's attack.

As this happened, she winced inwardly – Roman's escape was definitely not something to be wanted, but if there was one thing she'd come to learn with just their previous encounter, it was that the man was clearly a very slippery snake.

Given his new line of 'work,' it wouldn't surprise her much if she ended up seeing him again in the future.

But alas, the master thief mattered very little to her right now – what did matter was the professor's condition.

That cheap shot Roman had hit her with had been very unfair, but Penny's sudden and surprising display of battle prowess had been downright _awesome_.

…Up until she'd accidentally blasted Jaune, which wasn't so awesome.

And as strong and skilled as he'd shown himself to be in those spars, surely such an (accidental) attack on his person would leave him heavily drained of aura and injured. Seriously, that particle beam thing looked like it could've vaporized that bullhead of Roman's!

"We're nearing the end of my beam's trail! He should be close now!"

Ruby nearly jumped in fright before remembering that Penny had followed after her. Darn it, she really needs to learn to not get so caught up in her own thoughts.

That said, Penny's words lifted her mood, oddly enough. If anything, at least her growing sense of dread will end.

"O-Okay! Just push on!" Ruby exclaimed, putting on an even greater burst of speed than before, tapping just slightly into her semblance.

But in hindsight a second later, she realizes that she shouldn't have bothered-.

-For she nearly ended up colliding with the young man she and Penny had come to check on.

"W-Whoa!" Jaune Arc, simply known as 'professor' or just 'Jaune' in Ruby's mind, said as he suddenly appeared from out of a large smoke cloud.

Ruby squealed as she just barely managed to bring herself to a stop, merely inches away from Jaune when this occurred.

"W-Wah, professor, are you alright?!" she then found herself screaming as she proceeded to circle all around him looking for injuries.

"Indeed! Professor, are you well?!" Penny now said, joining Ruby's flailing about, an action that reassured said girl greatly. She looked and acted like a kid as it is, so having someone act sort of like her was kind of nice.

"R- Ms. Rose," Jaune then began. Ruby felt herself come to a stop when his hand shot out and gently yet firmly grabbed her shoulder, rooting her in place. She looked up at him and saw his dull blue eyes narrowed as they somehow locked onto Penny. "And… uh…"

"Penny Polendina, at your service!" Penny introduced from beside Ruby. She sounded very relieved.

Ruby couldn't blame her – amazingly, the professor looked _alright_! Aside from dirty clothes with some slight tears in his long sleeve shirt, he looked merely disheveled!

Wow, this guy was an absolute beast!

"Right, Penny," Jaune continued. "I'm fine... well as fine as could be given whatever hit me." He smiled a little sheepishly at that.

Looking slightly to her side, Ruby could see Penny sporting a similarly sheepish smile as well. This prompted the leader of RWBY to sport a small yet happy smile of her own, simply glad to know that no one had died.

But her smile died a quick death when Jaune spoke again. "But let's focus on that later – where's Torchwick and his team of thieves?" he then asked seriously.

At that, both Ruby and Penny looked down.

"…They just took off in that bullhead," Ruby spoke up. She felt, somehow, that she must be the one to say this. Whatever exactly had taken place here, Blake had been clearly involved against Roman and as leader of team RWBY, the young girl instinctively felt it was natural to feel responsible over what her friend and teammate got involved in.

…Oh, that's right, she needs to check on Blake too! And ask who that other blond guy was!

"I see… well, that was more or less expected…" Jaune then muttered.

Ouch. Somehow, Ruby couldn't help but feel that that comment was taking a jab at her skill in stopping Roman. But it couldn't be helped, right?! She was still just a first year!

"At least everyone appeared okay," Jaune followed up with, smiling softly. "That said, how about we go check on the others before the police show up. I have a feeling that what'll happen when they get here is going to be a little rough for us."

Oh, right… the cops! Considering that Roman was no longer in sight with a number of those White Fang goons lying unconscious everywhere… yeah, that'll take some explaining.

Jaune has a very good point there!

"R-Right!" Ruby then exclaimed loudly, feeling nervous once again, but for an entirely different reason now. Oh no, when the cops come and it becomes known they're Beacon students… oh no indeed, just how angry will the headmaster and deputy headmistress be?!

"A-And what of me?" Penny suddenly asked in the midst of Ruby's slight panic attack.

It prompted Ruby to look at her in slight worry. Penny may be an odd girl – and wasn't that saying a lot coming from her? – but in the fairly short time she's known the still very much _awesome_ fighting girl, she'd hardly ever looked nervous in any capacity.

So why did she look so worried now? Was it due to some issue she may have with authority or something?

"…It'd probably be best if you take off right now," Jaune said, making Ruby all but snap her head as she looked back at him at lightning speed. "You're not affiliated with Beacon and so dragging you through this mess would only give you more grief than you should have to worry about right now."

Penny looked surprised to say the least. "B-But what about…?" She motioned to the huge path of destruction her particle beam had wrought.

Jaune gently patted her on the shoulder. "I'll worry about that."

The smile on his face when he said that warmed Ruby's heart immensely. The professor had some kind of plan here! Maybe the headmaster and deputy headmistress won't be so angry after all!

* * *

Why the hell had he gone and said that?!

Never before had the urge to punch his own face in been so strong.

 _Reap what you now sow._

Ah, but that's what it now boils down to, isn't it? He'd already gone and said it so now he has to try and deliver.

"But first…" Jaune muttered very quietly to himself as Penny and Ruby bade a quick goodbye to each other before the former took off.

First thing first, he and Ruby would have to head back and check on both Blake and her blond companion. Ah and also make sure that none of the White Fang members were going to be getting back up soon.

As soon as Penny took off, he nodded to Ruby and the two of them promptly began to run back to where the others were at.

Jaune winced slightly as this happened.

That beam had hit him _hard_. While it hadn't left any physical damage thanks to a combination of his immense aura reserves and natural durability, it'd still taken a toll on said reserves, a testament to its power.

He'd definitely be feeling the pain for the rest of the night, possibly for a while in the morning too since it'd struck him more or less directly in the small of his back.

"A-Ah, Jaune!" Ruby then said, redirecting his attention from his pain towards her as they continued to run at a brisk pace. "What about Torchwick?! I know he was kind of bound to get away, but what about the next time he'll show up?"

Oh, right Torchwick. Not to mention that accomplice of his…

Man, now that he thought of it, that woman had been pretty tough.

While he'd certainly gained the upper-hand during the second half of their fight, that was due to a combination of him having already had a decent idea of her capabilities as well as having figured out her semblance. Well, that and she'd been fairly playful and cocky initially.

He may have had an advantage in brute strength, toughness and pure movement speed, but she'd been very agile and experienced, which had offset that in the beginning. Had she been aware of his own abilities and skill from the start, things may have gone differently.

As things had stood by the end, while he'd been admittedly dominating the fight, he'd been putting in a lot of effort into it, so it wasn't as if it'd been easy in any respect. Had he slowed down enough to give her time to regain her composure and think, she likely would've been able to turn things around somehow.

After all, he may be tough enough to withstand any blunt force attack from her with ease, but if she'd been able to somehow deliver a concentrated strike to him, that could've potentially been bad.

If there was ever a round 2 between them, Jaune had the distinct feeling that he'd be the one on the ropes.

However…

 _There will be no round 2._

Such words appeared in his mind with such finality about them that it could never be mistaken for some kind of arrogant boast. Nor was it some form of wishful thinking or foretelling.

It was, as far as Jaune was concerned, a simple fact at this point.

But that was beside the current point.

"I don't think he'll be showing his face for a while," he said to Ruby. "So let's try not to worry too much about the future just yet."

Ironically, that was what he did very often now. What a hypocrite he was. Though he'd like to remind himself that unlike many others, he was sort of 'in the know' regarding certain things.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that kind of thing.

Shaking his head to rid himself of these thoughts, Jaune then focused his Aura Vision on Blake and her unknown companion. A cursory glance was all it took to show him that both were fairly drained of aura. Not to dangerous lows, but certainly the amount of aura they'd expended up until now was a little worrisome; there was a chance that a particularly strong attack could've managed to slip past their weakened auras to deliver some genuine physical damage.

A brief glance to Ruby, who now sported a confused look in response to his answer, revealed that she too had taken a fairly strong hit as her normally bright silver aura wasn't as strong as it was before nor as bright.

Jaune's brief glance evolved into a slight stare, which he didn't realize. Ruby's aura was always one of the more fascinating ones to look at from time to time, which says quite a lot considering how beautiful everyone else's auras look.

A sign, perhaps, of her potential? He honestly hoped so, because in the future her power would definitely be needed. It may not actually turn the tides completely, but if used right it could serve as a pretty good speed bump against what was to come.

"U-Umm, Jaune? Is something wrong with me?" Ruby suddenly said, sounding very embarrassed.

"H-Huh? Oh! No, not at all," he then said, finally noticing he'd been staring. "Just got caught up in my thoughts."

They now neared the origin point of tonight's events. Their fairly brisk run now came to a slow end as both Jaune and Ruby spotted Blake and her new blond friend simply standing about, seeming to be whispering about something.

Jaune saw the blond boy perk up as they approached followed shortly by Blake, who immediately spun around to fully look at them.

Now Jaune wasn't oblivious to how the B of team RWBY suddenly tensed up as she looked his way nor did he miss the slight flinch the other one had upon his approach either. Not once had he ever been unaware of her avoidance of him.

He knew that it was a natural result of his differences, but it was something he'd long since made peace with and with good reason.

"Still… it does kind of hurt…" he muttered.

"Wha?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing," he replied quickly as he and the girl now walked up to the two others.

As he did so, Jaune took a slight whiff of the area around him, breathing in the spilt Dust and smoke fumes that had resulted from the fighting earlier.

Destruction in just this little spot in Vale… he all but tasted it now on his tongue.

And – very reluctantly – he tried to get himself used to it. Because in due time, there was going to be a lot more of it, regardless of how prepared everyone may be for the not so distant future.

* * *

"What?"

That was literally the only word that was able to escape Cinder's mouth just now.

Not even two minutes ago, she'd received a call on her own heavily encrypted scroll from none other than Roman, who'd she been waiting to receive a report from regarding the Dust theft from the pier.

In spite of his slight failures as of recently, she'd been expecting the man to put his sole talents to good use and secure all of the Dust from the SDC shipment and she'd been expecting his call to her to reflect that.

Instead, what he'd just told her was the exact fucking opposite.

According to him, two obvious hunter trainees had popped up out of the blue to try and thwart the theft, something that, while proving troublesome, had gone about as well as had been expected…

Until he'd mentioned the arrival of that very same blond enigma that had knocked him out all those weeks back, followed then by the arrival of that young girl he'd encountered from weeks ago as well as a – as Roman had put it thusly – 'some cyborg girl of mass destruction.'

That had been when – again, as Roman had just put it – the entire operation went 'miles up shit creek without a paddle.' This was something that had been confirmed visually when Cinder had seen in the background of the visual call a very infuriating lack of White Fang grunts and a surprisingly injured Neopolitan, whom even Cinder had regarded as something of a dangerous combatant.

So again, all the red-dressed woman could say was: "What?"

On the other end of her scroll, Roman snorted, but not in the same arrogant manner as he usually did. The master thief looked genuinely rattled. "Same reaction I had, buttercup," he muttered.

Cinder's sheer disbelief over what she'd just been told now turned to annoyance. But she refrained from reminding the man of his place. That could wait for later.

"So to put things very simply," Cinder instead said, "you failed to obtain any Dust at all during all of the fighting."

Roman let out a harsh laugh. "Well, I'm sorry. Maybe next time some cyborg chick shows up, I'll be a bit more prepared for it!" he said hotly.

Cinder noticed him briefly looking to Neopolitan right after he spoke too. He clearly quite cared for her. Perhaps not in the same way one would care for a significant other, but certainly as some kind of friend or close comrade.

And so, she ignored his previous remark to comment upon this. "And what had happened to the men I gave you? And to your little friend?"

That had certainly grabbed the thief's attention, the man glaring at her more fiercely than he'd ever dared to do before. "Those animals you gave me were too hopelessly stupid to know how to do things right – ended up getting taken down by those trainees I mentioned," he said coldly. "As for my 'little friend,' she ended up going toe-to-toe with that blond bastard…. and ended up pretty hurt from it. That cyborg freak's laser beam hitting so close to her didn't really make her all better."

Now that had grabbed her attention.

This unknown man was able to go up against Roman's little vixen? She had to admit that was impressive; Neopolitan was by no means an average criminal fighter. But by that same token, it also made him that much more dangerous. It was clear now that he was going to be a constant thorn in her side, but this level of ability from him was admittedly unexpected.

But her own quiet assessment aside… "Oh? Is that so?"

"You bet it is!" Roman yelled in anger. No doubt that this unknown man's actions had made the thief dislike him even more. "If Neo hadn't been around to keep him occupied, the entire operation likely would've gone sideways even more!"

"Calm down, Roman," Cinder commanded, growing tired now of how… lively he'd become in the wake of his failure. "While I will admit now that this blond man is more of a threat than I'd originally thought, that doesn't mean everything is going to be jeopardized… it just means we'll have to take a new approach to dealing with him."

Based on all of the details Roman had given her, it probably wouldn't be too farfetched of her to assume that he was affiliated with Beacon Academy, if only by sheer virtue of the fact that not even an inherently good person would just go leaping into potential danger based on an oddity or two.

Even if a direct attempt on the man will likely not go well if handled by a proxy, perhaps a more indirect method will work somehow. If he really is a part of Beacon somehow, then he is likely bound by the same kind of rules and regulations that the students and faculty abide by.

And not only that… with the ruckus that had been caused on the pier, the police should've likely arrived by now, with the trainees and the blond ready to explain themselves. On record. Which means that within the next day or two she could have Emerald sneak into the police department and get a look at that record, provided an outside hacking attempt somehow fails.

This thought lifted Cinder's mood somewhat; it meant that perhaps she'd finally have a name and face to go with this blond man.

"What is it now?" Roman then grunted, his childishly sour mood dampening the slight cheer she'd just felt. "You got that irksome smirk on your face… so what did you come up with?"

Cinder schooled her expression now on instinct. For the thief to be able to tell she'd thought of something that easily… despite his faults, he really is a perceptive individual.

That frustrated her a little.

"Nothing much," she then said. "Just altering the plan a little."

"Care to share?" was Roman's immediate response.

"No," in turn was her own imediate reply. "I'll tell you what you need to know _when_ you need to know it. For now, simply return to the fallback position and hole up there until I say give the okay."

Roman grumbled something under his breath. She couldn't make out any words, but she doubted it was anything kind about her. "…Fine." He eventually said for her to here before the call then ended.

Putting away her scroll, she tried hard not to sigh, but failed. While her mind had already started to plan out how best to deal with this blind young man, it still rattled her somewhat to know now just how badly tonight had gone.

A lot of Dust had been lost because of this so now she had only two choices: press on with the plan with less Dust or try to obtain more Dust through some other method… but if she went through with that second option, that'd require her to send either Mercury or Emerald to do so since Roman was clearly becoming incapable of doing anything without running into some form of trouble.

But Mercury, despite his obedience and discipline, was still quick to grow bored and distracted and Emerald had grown tired of running Dust thefts in Roman's place back then. So the second option likely was a no go.

Which meant the first option was really the only one to take.

Well, she supposed it wouldn't be too bad – after all, as long as the train made a big enough mess to allow Grimm into the kingdom at the required time, then the amount of Dust wasn't something to worry about since as things stood by her calculations, she should already have the minimum amount needed to pull it off.

Which left only this blond enigma to deal with as well as anyone else who tries to intervene.

"Hmmm…" While she already had a few ideas forming, she'd need specifics about this guy before she could start seriously giving his 'disposal' some truly serious thought.

At least now – she couldn't help but smile a little at this – she should have a name to go with that pretty little face of his.

Who knows? Maybe when she finds out his identity, it'll give her some leverage to work with.

* * *

Roman, after having ended his call with Cinder, had all but hurtled it against the interior wall of the bullhead. It was only the fact that he needed it for his other contacts that prevented him from actually going through with this endeavor.

"Damn it all," he muttered.

"Sir," spoke the pilot, Perry, suddenly. "We're finally here."

"Good… land this thing then," Roman ordered.

The fallback position as Cinder had called it a moment ago was an abandoned factory in the industrial section of Vale, one long since abandoned when the companies that had run this area either moved elsewhere or were flat out shut down for one scandal or another.

Due to the sheer size of said factory, it was easy to maneuver a bullhead or two in and out of the place without issue since the number of people that so much as even looked in this area's direction was pretty much nil.

It also served a makeshift base for the White Fang members stationed here in Vale by their oh so intelligent leaders.

Landing and disembarking immediately, Roman hefted a still unconscious Neo gently off the bullhead and all but shoved his way past the White Fang goons that came out to help the exiting Perry cover up the airship just in case.

"You! Get me some medical supplies!" the thief barked out as he entered the factory. While Neo wasn't too scuffed up physically, her wounds would still need to be looked at and tended to before her aura could be expected to restore itself enough to heal her.

Bumping his way past some other Faunus – earning him many a disgruntled scoff in the process – he marched like a snobbish general deeper into the factory, unmindful of all else.

All the while, his thoughts were torn between making sure Neo was okay and wanting to make that blond punk pay more than ever before.

He looked towards the future now with an odd mix of worry and rage.

* * *

As a number of the White Fang members finished covering up the bullhead, none of them noticed just how much darker the shadows around them suddenly became.

Nor did they notice when the darkness of the shadows returned to their normal coloration when they finally began to make their way back to and inside the factory.

And as they ventured back to their quarters, none became even remotely aware of the blackness that had latched onto them, biding its brief time.

This night was not yet over for them.

* * *

 **And that wraps up this chapter! God, no matter how I tried to write it, even how I ended up dealing with the immediate aftermath of the pier event seemed to flow smoothly. Hope you guys don't mind it. However, the coming chapters should flow much more smoothly once I get around to it.**

 **Also, I noticed how some of you seemed worried by how the Jaune/Neo fight had gone. Hopefully the little bit I wrote about it in Jaune's section will explain how it went, but basically the turn of events comes down to one thing: Information. From the start, Jaune had walked into this with already a fairly decent idea of how tough Neo was, but Neo herself knew absolutely nothing about him. Had she known about his level of ability and his skills from the start, she'd have put up a MUCH better fight.**

 **Hell, in such a scenario, I could've easily wrote her as the victor given how she could've essentially poked him into unconsciousness with her hits over time, not to mention that umbrella of hers.**

 **Just thought I should explain.**

 **And it's my sincere belief that the next chapter will be a very interesting one because this isn't over just yet. Look forward to it!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	15. Chapter 15

Been itching to write a chapter like this for a number of weeks now. The anticipation I had for this was almost literally hurting me, ha ha ha. Now here's to hoping that I did a good job writing it – I've looked it over a few times to think I did – but that is something I'll leave up to you guys to decide!

Oh, applied for another job and had passed the exam for it! Now to sit through their interviews and pass their background check – assuming I even make it that far, of course. I sincerely hope I do because I'm tired of my current job and this new one is one that I've definitely been looking for. Wish me luck!

Just wanted to let you know this just in case the whole process ends up delaying some future chapters.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 15

The blackness that had latched itself onto several of the White Fang members had – for lack of a better way to put it – remained still as said terrorists entered the factory. It continued to remain still as they continued their slow walk back to where they were resting in this 'rundown shithole' as one had called this facility.

But when the White Fang members finally headed far enough into the factory, passing by increasingly more members running about, the blackness finally made its next move.

Time to begin.

Detaching itself from the four members unaware of what they'd brought in, the blackness seemed to rise behind them and 'grow' in size.

By the time any of them had even begun to notice something suddenly amiss, it was already too late.

* * *

Perry Von Winkle – who hated his name almost as much as he hated Faunus discrimination – held a certain kind of prestige amongst the group of the White Fang spending their time here in Vale by sheer virtue of the fact that he was perhaps the one Faunus in all of Remnant that Roman Torchwick could be said to actually _like_.

This was due to him, as the colorful thief had put it, being actually smart and competent.

This was an odd line of thinking, of remembrance, that he had just now because suddenly he felt his intelligence and competence may very well be put to some kind of test.

Something was here.

Following the landing of the bullhead several moments ago, he and Roman had disembarked the flying contraption in order to quickly get his… acquaintance? Friend?... to her room to be medically attended to.

After that had taken place, however, Perry had been told by Roman in a rather gruff voice to go about his own business now and the Faunus had done just that, having given himself the task of double checking how much Dust they had in stock here.

And he now brought his own self-imposed task to a grinding halt when a sudden bout of noise drew his attention.

It had been very brief, but it had also been _very_ loud. No doubt everyone here in this abandoned factory had heard it and were likely put on edge just as much as he now was.

…Those had been screams just now. As muffled and garbled as they'd been, that collective bout of noise had definitely been screams.

Had someone managed to infiltrate this place? No, impossible; all possible preventative measures had been taken to keep people from even thinking the White Fang may be here in this abandoned zone, much less in this particular section of said zone. And there's no way someone could've snuck in here so easily; while not many people could've been sent here to Vale, they had enough to cover virtually every possible entryway into this place.

Yet the screams just now had come from the White Fang's temporary sleeping quarters. That was quite deep into the factory…

Perry, having been marking off a checklist of sorts upon a clipboard – he made it to keep things organized -, set it down reluctantly and began to make his way out of the room-.

-Just as all of the power in the factory suddenly went out.

Perry could tell all of the power was cut because some of the factory's machinery that they had gotten up and running suddenly switched off.

Along with all of the lights.

However, the sudden lack of light didn't bother him too much. He was a Faunus, after all, and as such he had exceptional night vision.

Exiting their storage room without a fuss, he hesitantly traversed the factory towards the source of the disturbance.

As he did so, he began to feel shivers race up and down his spine. How odd; the temperature was clearly the same as before, but he felt so much colder on the inside for some reason.

Damn it, why didn't he grab a weapon of some kind?

With nothing save for his scroll on his person, he pulled it out and slowed in his already hesitant walk to type up a message and sent it to multiple others here in the factory, wanting to account for where they were and their status.

Stopping as one message after another immediately rolled in, Perry did a quick mental count to see who hadn't replied.

While he couldn't really name any names in particular, he had a good enough idea to know anyways who hadn't replied.

And now armed with this information he continued his trek.

But should he call Roman though? Surely the thief would want to know about this oddity though he likely heard the screams himself. Alas, Perry held off on messaging the thief. The man had looked far too focused earlier on tending to that petite woman to be able to pay much mind to this. He probably would've just ordered them to deal with this anyways.

Nearing the sleeping quarters they'd set up a couple of minutes later, Perry felt the odd and increasingly unsettling sensation grow worse in scope. It took all he had just to keep himself from turning around and leaving.

Rattling off another quick message and receiving some replies just as quickly, it seems that just a few others were leaving their current posts to come investigate as well while the majority of their forces here remained where they were.

Well, that was fine with him. Some backup was better than none.

So finally breaking out into a bit of a jog, he ran to the end of the current decrepit hallway and made a hard left-.

-only to be unable to see anything at all.

Perry growled in fright and annoyance as he came to a sudden halt. This new hallway was dark as hell, just how could he possibly travel down i-?

Then his eyes widened in shock as his fright and annoyance left him and he was reminded of a very simple fact.

He was a Faunus. All Faunus had excellent night-vision. Even in the dead of night with no light source around, a Faunus could still see where he or she was going without too much trouble. So…

…So why couldn't he see down this hallway?

A terrible sense of dread filled his entire being and he immediately began to backpedal.

But it was too late.

By the time he'd realized he was no longer alone as well, the darkness before his eyes _moved_.

And then he was no more.

* * *

On the opposite side of the factory, two White Fang members had crossed each other's paths and began to make their way in earnest towards the location of the disturbance.

One was a young woman with short deer antlers atop her head. The other was a man just a few years older than her and with the toughened skin of a crocodile. Armed with guns, both moved deftly and with considerable speed compared to many of the others here at this place.

While hardly powerful or even skilled when compared to the infamous lieutenant and the monstrously skilled Adam Taurus, Chelsea and Ike – their names, of course – were a few levels above the other members here.

And now they believed it was time to show their worth.

Being stuck in this factory for God knows how long now was really beginning to get to them and now it was their time to get a bit of action.

Chelsea took out her scroll in the middle of their running to send a message to Perry, who was the closest to the source of it all.

And she ended up receiving no reply.

Sharing a look with Ike, the two of them couldn't help but be confused and worried. Perry was average in terms of combat ability, but he was easily one of the most reliable members the White Fang has. He was quick to assess situations and quick to reply.

And now it's been a few minutes without any kind of reply from him.

Ike cocked his assault rifle as if ready to shoot something, more to reassure himself than anything else. Chelsea could more than sympathize with this urge of his.

Nonetheless, they both ran on, putting on a burst of speed in the process.

Only to slow when they saw an odd phenomenon out of the corner of their eyes.

Some of the shadows around them seemed to be _following_ them, regardless of the lack of light.

"W-What the-?" Ike began to say before the shadows burst off the walls.

As her companion was suddenly attacked by… by _something_ , all Chelsea could do was fire in fright as the darkness all around swelled forth and filled her vision.

An instant later, darkness was all she and her companion knew.

* * *

Roman tried not to growl, lest he disturb Neo's now more peaceful sleep.

He could hear gunfire off in the distance. It didn't last very long, perhaps a second and a half at the most, but it was enough to worsen his mood which had only barely began to alleviate itself after patching Neo up.

"Those damned idiots… how hard is it to just check out something?" he muttered as he slowly got up from his seat besides Neo and began to make his way out of the room.

He'd heard the screams from earlier. He'd almost been tempted to just play it off as the Faunus acting stupid over something, but the ensuing shutdown of all machinery and lights had immediately changed his mind on that.

Nonetheless, he'd been expecting these White Fang scrubs to at least be capable enough of dealing with whatever the issue was, but evidently that just wasn't the case.

Wonderful, this night just kept on going, it'd seem.

With no one but himself – aside from Perry – to rely on, Roman could only huff as he began to walk towards where the gunfire had originated from.

Finding the darkness of the hallways a little too much for him to see through and being too impatient to let his eyes adjust to the lack of light, Roman instead altered a setting on Melodic Cudgel and when he pulled and held the trigger right afterwards, a dim light was slowly emitted from the barrel end of it, making the weapon look like a large candle if viewed from a distance.

And yes, Roman was aware of how this may look to others. He could just imagine the candle jokes.

Now able to walk without possibly tripping over his own feet, the thief made his way to where he'd heard the gunfire.

As he walked, he pulled out his scroll and quickly typed out a message to Perry, demanding a status report. And though he'd never admit it, his heartbeat sped up a bit when Perry didn't reply immediately.

Amazingly, it was this one simple fact that now had him feeling worried. For all of his frustration with these White Fang grunts he'd been given, Perry was the only one he would dare say he _trusted_ to be reliable. The glasses wearing Faunus was always very quick to reply to any message sent his way no matter the situation.

So if even Perry was somehow affected by whatever the hell was going on…

"Tch." Roman shook his head.

Just look at how stupid he was being, he couldn't help but think mildly. He was letting just one thing suddenly get to him. Was this any way that a criminal of his caliber should be acting? Seriously, he could be willing to risk pissing off Cinder on some of his better days, but not getting a reply back was too much for him?

Grumbling insults to himself, he instead typed up another message and sent it to every single one of the goons he'd been given.

…And just like Perry, he received no reply.

"Useless pieces of-," he began to mutter.

Only to suddenly stop.

Just before he could've finished that statement, something rattled his ears, a type of slithering sound unlike any other one he's heard before…

…And it was coming from somewhere _behind_ him.

Instantly, he whirled around to confront whatever was there… and was rewarded with nothing save for more darkness.

As far as his eyes could see with the dim lighting his cane provided him, he was the only damned person here.

But why did it suddenly feel like he wasn't alone anymore?

Turning back around, he continued his trek albeit with a bit more speed in his steps than before. His shoulders remained hunched up, tensed and just raring to have a reason to not feel this way right now.

He checked his scroll. Still no replies of any kind from anyone.

He swore. Loudly.

That same slithering sound from before then made itself known again from behind him.

And unlike the first time a moment ago, the thief didn't react defensively this time.

Adjusting the setting on Melodic Cudgel back to its usual state, he immediately fired two large rounds at where he heard the sound. His eyes went wide when he watched his shots end up hitting the wall, blasting through it.

The slithering sound happened again, but this time from above him.

He ducked down whilst now looking up, but he saw nothing upon doing so. "What the fuck is going on?!" he muttered.

Staying crouched for a moment, he slowly made his way to where the current hallway ended and made a right, leading to a corridor not even several yards away. When he heard the sound no longer, he reluctantly stood back up and made a right at the corridor, which led him to some stairs that would take him to the same level where the gunfire was heard from.

This floor was more openly spaced than the one he'd just come from yet was smaller in size as well, due to the odd shape that the factory had at this point of its structure.

Roman currently wasn't complaining about this, since it should mean he'd be able to get to the potential source of this problem in short order.

And it was this thought that spurned him into breaking into a run, as if worried the slithering sound would suddenly begin again.

He didn't have to run particularly far, however, nor traverse as much of the floor as he'd initially thought; turned out that two of those damned Faunus had actually been fairly close to where the stairway was.

Their backs were turned to him and their forms seemed to be shaking.

Roman noticed this, but was secretly far too relieved to take it for the danger sign that it was. "There you are!" he yelled as he approached. His grip on his cane tightened, feeling an urge to hit them over the heads. "Why did you not respond to my message?! Too old or stupid to learn new tri-!"

By this point in his beginning tirade, he'd come up to the two White Fang members and had circled around them to look directly into their eyes.

And when he did this and his mind registered what he was seeing, he recoiled almost violently. He backed away immediately as the two very much _dead_ Faunus finally fell back. He felt amazed that their bodies had remained upright for so long considering that, well… there hadn't been much of them left judging by the glimpse he just got.

And this was all that he could bring himself to now stand as he finally realized that something had gone very, very, _very_ wrong here.

A chill now raced up and down his spine at Mach speeds as he began to think that perhaps the other goons stationed had been… dealt with… in a similar manner.

It was a thought great enough to make him nearly call Cinder for help, but the more practical and cynical part of him stopped that thought instantly. Whoever or whatever had done this was probably still here if the slithering sound was any indication. So calling for backup of any kind would be pointless since there was no way it'd make it here in time to matter.

And that was assuming Cinder would even bother listening to his demand in the first place.

So in far fewer words… he had to assume he was on his own here.

And in light of this, that meant just one thing to him: get to Neo and then get the hell out of here.

Moving past the bodies and dashing for the stairs, Roman's expression contorted into a perfect blend of worry and grim faced determination. Leaping down the stairway instead of attempting to quickly dash down it, he grunted only marginally when he landed at the bottom.

Said grunt turned into a gasp when the slithering sound finally occurred again. From all around him this time.

It was enough – more than enough – to prompt him to do away with all sense of his usual suaveness and run at full speed. Nearly slamming into every wall he had to turn at, Roman cared not when his bowl hat ended up falling off his head.

For he had more to worry about just now than his accessories – even now, he could hear that blasted sound following him, getting louder and louder despite not being able to see anything closing in on him.

The run back to Neo's room was very brief, little more than half a minute. To Roman, however, it had felt so much longer. And upon reaching it, he reasoned that the temporary bout of euphoria he now felt was probably how runners in a long distance marathon felt upon seeing the finish line several feet away.

But just as he lashed out with his hand to grab the door, he felt something stop him. He didn't simply mean that in a figurative sense – something had literally stopped him from fully grabbing at the door's handle.

"No!" he roared, his eyes going wide. He struggled to break free of whatever had grabbed his hand, but to no avail. He didn't even know what had suddenly grabbed him, much less how to break out of something he couldn't even see in the first place.

He immediately tried to use his other hand, wielding his cane, to simply blast the door down instead, but just as he moved it a few inches, he felt something grab it too.

Suddenly and with great force Roman was yanked back, smashing into the wall directly across from the door. He cried out in shock and light pain, his aura visibly taking the hit for him for the most part.

Then he felt that same unseeing force grab him by the neck, hard enough to nearly deprive him of air, definitely hard enough to prevent him from speaking and then slowly turning his head so that it now faced his left. As this occurred, he felt his eyelids being forcibly held open as well, preventing him from even blinking.

And when he was finally fully looking to the left, his eyes themselves nearly bulged out of their sockets at what he saw:

A pair of eyes peering out of the darkness directly at him. No pupils, no irises, no sclera at all, just a pair of red glows that seemed incapable of being described by any other color, not even other shades of red. Roman knew they were eyes simply by the intensity he could feel from them, piercing his very being, piercing through even his very aura.

Those red eyes looked at him for who he truly was, right down to his soul.

And they found him lacking.

Those impossibly red eyes then glowed ever brighter, shining through the darkness of the hallway, a darkness that didn't lighten one bit in spite of those red eyes. And yet despite this, Roman couldn't help but notice when the darkness all around him began to _shift_. Audibly.

He choked as he tried to mumble something, realizing now that it was the darkness itself that had been making those slithering sounds from before.

And as said darkness now began to converge on him, he only heard one thing before it all went black for him.

 _Goodbye._

* * *

Discolored eyes slowly and painfully opened, eyeing the bland dark ceiling directly above.

Were Neo capable of any kind of vocal noise, she'd be groaning right now from a mixture of pain, frustration, and worry.

What a night it's been for her. Right away as she looked up at the ceiling, she knew exactly where she was and while she was most thankful to be taken to safety, a part of her highly doubted that her foe had been taken down after her performance against him.

Seriously now, she'd played around with him far too much. This was merely the price she was paying for it. She should've taken him much more seriously from the start.

Alas, that was something she could worry about later. For now, she just wanted to continue resting, her body hurting all over still.

That being said, she also partially wanted to get up and look for Roman. In fact, now that her mind was really beginning to clear, she was surprised to not see him here beside her. While the two of them were not lovers or anything of the sort, they were still fairly close 'friends,' enough so that the cane wielding thief was often by her side whenever he wasn't getting dragged around by the ear by that Cinder bitch.

So on that note… just why exactly wasn't he here? And what was going on? It sounded too quiet outside her room. Normally some of those White Fang grunts would still be stomping around on their patrols by this time of night.

Turning over in her bed slightly, the diminutive woman then looked at the small nightstand she'd gone through some trouble of bringing all the way here, if only to liven up the otherwise dull industrial room.

She'd also made it a point to set up a clock on the nightstand and right now as she looked at it, the clock was very much off.

Another oddity in her eyes. Had the power gone out during her unconsciousness earlier? If so, then how and why?

The woman tried to ponder on this, finding this situation she'd woken up in increasingly odd.

And then suddenly, her entire body tensed up.

Her breath, already a little out of its usual rhythm due to her battered and tired state, hitched up completely for a second as an unnatural sensation immediately washed over her.

Something was here. Something was here in the goddamned room with her.

How she knew this, Neo didn't know, but it didn't matter. What did matter was now trying to _get out_.

And so she immediately tried to do just that- to absolutely no avail. The very second she'd tried to sit up and literally roll out of her bed if need be, her body felt pinned in place upon her large bed.

Her breathing became labored as she struggled to move, but it was futile; some invisible and powerful force was keeping her from even moving an inch in any direction.

Her eyes widened as the unnatural sensation grew in intensity, slowly overwhelming her very senses.

…And was it just her eyes playing tricks on her or was the very darkness of her room _moving_ somehow?!

Her struggles ceased completely, if only from shock, when something suddenly plummeted onto her face. She actually shriek soundlessly when this happened and could only watch out of the very corner of her eyes as the unknown object bounced off her face and landed next to her on the bed.

It was Roman's bowl hat. And it was covered in blood. Even with how impossibly dark the room now seemed to be getting, Neo was able to see this.

And it froze her to the very core.

 _Consider it a brief memento for you…_

Her eyes all but blurred as they shot to her right, looking immediately for who'd just spoken. But it was no use though – the words may have sounded as if they came from the right, but they'd been projected directly into her head.

Nonetheless, Neo, feeling increasingly frantic, just _knew_ that the speaker lied to her right. And she was correct in this.

Slowly, impossibly red eyes formed out of the darkness and stared at her from no more than a few feet away.

They peered into the very core of her being, searching her. And judging her.

And they found her lacking.

… _Now it's time for you to join him._

An instant before the darkness of the room began to converge upon her, its hold on her loosened just enough for her to open her mouth.

Just long enough for her to let out a silent scream.

* * *

Hardly a moment later, the blackness found itself feeling something akin to… what was it again?... Ah… satisfaction.

It was still having a bit of a hard time identifying human emotions on its lonesome. But it hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things right now.

For now, the blackness was 'satisfied' to know that some of the pawn's pawns had been dealt with. But while the people it had done away with were hardly important, their collective and individual plans could've still had some kind of effect upon Vale had they been allowed to live. Now with them gone, it had deprived the actual pawn of some of her resources.

Surely, the pawn, for all of her unearned confidence, will now begin to feel pressured into contacting her master – the 'Queen' as those who knew a little of the truth liked to call her.

Its 'enemy,' so to speak. Or rather, the 'enemy' of humanity. After all, the Queen hardly posed any actual challenge to it, though a direct confrontation with her had never been its goal, let alone an actual option given the circumstances.

…Ah, but now it was allowing itself to get 'lost in thought' as Jaune would say.

That wouldn't do. It could hardly be allowed to just whimsically ponder like this. It had to return lest someone somehow point out its absence on Jaune's being and end up stumbling upon its existence now. This was a very improbable possibility, but it's seen many otherwise improbable things take place. Best not to leave things to chance just yet.

And so the blackness girded itself and, for lack of a better way to describe it, 'leapt' from the factory and out into the very night itself, the sky rumbling ever so slightly as it passed on, back to its companion.

Once Jaune was informed that the sub-pawns had been dealt with, it'll be time to genuinely prepare for what comes next.

No doubt the Queen would have noticed this too by now.

* * *

Beneath Ozpin's tower, Amber's heartbeat sped up erratically.

Her breath quickened as a result. She broke out into a cold sweat and her hands balled up into fists out of instinct alone.

And then slowly… so very slowly…

Her eyes opened.

* * *

Off in a far distant and unrecognizable land, burning red eyes with sclera as black as coal surrounding them gazed up at the moon.

Amusement danced within these eyes and the woman that these eyes belonged to chuckled ever so slightly.

She'd been asleep for quite some time in the past and now was awake once more, having been content to just lounge around for now. But now with this all too familiar sensation coursing through her very soul, she couldn't help but feel a growing need to become more active…

…But she held this need back for the time being.

For just a little while longer, she'll entertain herself with watching how events continue to unfold.

And she was most certain they'll live up to her expectations.

* * *

 **Chapter's a bit shorter than usual, word-count wise at least. That said, I hope the content of this chapter made up for this!**

 **And now this'll be when things truly diverge from RWBY canon, so I am very much hoping that you all will enjoy what else I now have in store!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	16. Chapter 16

Well holy shit! Anyone keep up with news on the Blazblue game series? If any of you do, then I wonder if you were just as surprised and as hyped as I was at the series' newest playable character! Ah man, and now here I go getting fanfic ideas about it… heh, just can't stop myself on that front, it seems.

Ha, my little fanboy moment aside, I'm glad to see that the reception to the previous chapter was overall pretty positive! And now with the actual appearance of the blackness introduced into the story, you can expect things to start getting very interesting in fairly short order! On a related note… I wonder if any of you have then caught onto something about it, heh heh.

Now onto the chapter!

P.S. As always, thank you so much for the reviews/favs/follows!

Chapter 16

Jaune sighed in slight exhaustion as he grew tired of meditating.

It's been several hours now since the incident at the pier and the immediate aftermath of said event – which involved having to explain things to the police – had been quite nerve-wracking. Lying on such fairly short notice sometimes wasn't his strong suit.

Nonetheless, he felt it went well overall.

Basically, when the cops had arrived along with an ambulance or two, he'd made sure that the students were looked at during his brief time with the senior officer there. During said time, he'd managed to weave a decent tale that put the blame on Roman Torchwick and his goons regarding the destruction done to the area, having said that their haphazard attacks had ignited some of the Dust they'd been trying to steal. Most thankfully for him, some of the Dust crates that the White Fang members had tried to haul off were busted up in the conflict, which had further supported his story somewhat.

It had also helped that the goons taken down had been unconscious upon being taken into custody by the officers, which had spared Jaune having them potentially trying to poke any holes at his story.

After that had been taken care of and Ruby, Blake and the now named Sun Wukong had been tended to, a bullhead from Beacon had been dispatched to pick them up… with Glynda Goodwitch in tow.

Finishing up his meditation for now, Jaune couldn't help but shiver slightly at that particularly fresh memory – his senior professor had looked more than a little displeased when she'd arrived on the scene, thankfully more so at the students than at him, since as students, doing what they'd done flew in the face of common sense, safety and rules. Of course, him again lying to say he'd merely investigated the area by chance and hadn't had the time to call for backup had helped keep the heat off of him.

Still hadn't stopped him from having to then tell Glynda and Ozpin the same details he'd given the police… and unlike the officers, they'd picked and prodded at any holes in his cover story.

Alas, that had been hours ago and now it was around 4 in the morning, the blond assistant professor having somewhat reluctantly given up sleep this night in favor of meditation.

To be fair to himself, it hadn't been his own decision from the beginning to meditate.

"So how does it feel?" he muttered aloud within his room.

 _A little better. But still it will not be enough._

His companion, upon his return, had informed Jaune of his accomplished mission and then had gone on to insist the blond practice his control, hence his meditation session just now.

And right now, Jaune sighed as he shifted his now signature coat…

…Except it wasn't really a coat at all. It was his companion, having manifested itself as a coat long ago in order to remain on his being without drawing suspicion.

During his fight with that woman, he'd thrown off his 'coat' on the off chance that Roman Torchwick would escape and such a possibility had come to be. And in response to this, his companion and mentor had shifted from his disguise to his partial form in order to latch onto the escaping thief and follow him back to his base of operations…

..Which was now no more; his friend had told him upon his return of Roman's death along with the deaths of that woman and the White Fang members that had been there as well.

The news, even though it'd been expected, had bothered the blind blond somewhat, but nowhere near as much as it would've otherwise. Perhaps it was because of what his Aura Vision allowed him to see.

For after having glimpsed Roman's aura along with his accomplice's and the White Fang members', he'd been able to tell that while their auras were just as beautiful as anyone else's, they'd been far too corrupted by greed or anger or hatred to ever change their ways… and with what was to ultimately come, that would've only done far more harm than good for anyone. And as a result, they'd all had to die.

It was a rather cold thing to say let alone even think from one such as himself, but Jaune had no choice but to look at the bigger picture for the time being.

That aside, however…

"How much is 'a little better?'" he asked of his companion.

His coat shifted ever so slightly from beside him on the bed, losing its physical form just enough to give it a somewhat misty appearance as his friend replied.

 _What happened at Forever Falls shouldn't happen again. At least, not at such a high level._

This got Jaune to sigh yet again. As a result of his growing 'condition,' Grimm tended to act differently whenever he was within a certain distance of them. He'd spent several months trying to rein in the effect he had on Grimm and while he has made progress, it wasn't as much as he'd like. Looks like he'd have to avoid heavily Grimm populated areas for a while longer.

Well, at any rate, he'll take what he can get.

"So how is my sister and her team sleeping right now? Any sort of sign of her being watched?" he then asked.

 _None. She sleeps peacefully._

Jaune looked happy at that. But the happiness only lasted for a brief second before it shifted to worry. "And what about the Fall Maiden?"

 _She's awake now for good. Be careful, Jaune. She'll home in on you if you're close enough._

At that Jaune could gulp in slight worry.

That was going to be a hell of a lot easier said than done.

* * *

Glynda Goodwitch was finding the past several hours to be quite eventful for her. First, she'd received a call from the police saying some Beacon students and apparently a professor had been at the scene of an incident, which had naturally brought her hurrying over to find out what had happened.

While she was glad to know that the young Ruby Rose and her runaway teammate Blake Belladonna were okay alongside her assistant professor, she'd still brought them back to the school with more than a little anger at them for acting so recklessly. At least Jaune had been there to lend them aid, even if he'd apparently stumbled across them too haphazardly to call for back up.

But not long after they'd returned and she'd given the R and B of team RWBY a stern lecture before dismissing them for now, she'd been suddenly called by an almost shocked sounding Ozpin informing her of a miraculous thing:

Amber had finally woken up.

And so it was down here, deep below Ozpin's tower that she'd spent her night thus far alongside her longtime comrade.

Currently, she was sitting on a chair that she'd used her semblance to fashion out of some of the stuff here in this hidden room. Ozpin sat in such a chair as well next to her.

And across from her was none other than the Fall Maiden herself.

Even now, after hours of tending to the suddenly awakened maiden, Glynda couldn't help but feel that this situation was a little too surreal for her. It certainly had been a bit of a task, she and Ozpin having initially had to persuade the young woman before her to stand down when they'd first arrived, the maiden having broken out of her capsule-esque chamber by the time they'd shown up and looking incredibly on edge when they'd approached her.

Thankfully, they'd managed to avoid a physical conflict after explaining themselves, but it definitely hadn't been easy; Amber was pretty paranoid due to the sort of difficulties being a maiden made for her.

Since then, however, they'd taken to first making sure she was physically okay before explaining to the woman her current situation. And now after having taken so many hours doing so in as much detail as possible, she and Ozpin now awaited a response from Amber.

And what an expression she had on her face. Glynda was almost half expecting the young woman to faint on the spot due to the sheer amount of surprise she was showing on top of still not quite being in the best of shape.

"…Just wow," Amber eventually said, rubbing her forehead now.

The deputy headmistress could certainly sympathize. From how their friend Qrow had shown up to aid her all that time back in addition to whatever other relevant information they had on the overall situation behind the scenes, she and Ozpin had told her just about everything they knew, including what they knew about her current state.

"Amber…" Ozpin began. "I understand that this is a lot to suddenly take in, but now with you awake, time is unfortunately of the essence… is there anything you could tell us about what had happened? We wish to know your side of the story."

Glynda could only frown inwardly. Personally, she'd much rather have the maiden continue to rest – she still seriously looked weakened due to how long and deep her coma had been… but with the Queen still out there, no doubt planning out her next several moves tirelessly, they couldn't afford to be too idle themselves.

If nothing else though, she supposed that it was something that they still had managed to get her a blanket to wrap herself up in and give her a bit of water and food, enough to restore some color to her body.

Still, that being said…

"But before you tell us that, however," Glynda now spoke up, drawing a look of interest from Ozpin. "There's clearly a specific reason why you've suddenly awoken… any chance you could tell us what that is?"

The four maidens were known to possess not just extraordinary powers – magic, more or less – but to also have a type of sixth sense that allowed them to perceive things others couldn't. Perhaps this sixth sense could help them figure out why the Fall Maiden's status had so suddenly begun to change all that time back.

And just like that, it was like a switch had been flipped.

Gone was the tired and shocked expression the still disoriented Amber had. Now in its place was a look of equal parts worry and anger.

"I can't exactly tell you why. I hardly know myself what exactly it was," she began, curling up in her blanket even more. Despite her title as the Fall Maiden, she had a slight inclination towards fire, so warmth really helped her recover a bit faster than usual. "But I sensed _something_ during my coma… something very old and _very_ dangerous."

Glynda watched as the young woman seemed to hug herself, her fingers digging painfully into her skin. "And whatever it is," Amber began again, grabbing the blonde's attention again. "It's _here_ , somewhere in this… this school of yours."

At that, Glynda immediately looked to Ozpin in shock who looked back at her with an undecipherable look in his eyes.

"And would I be right to assume that this entity, whatever it may be, is still here in my academy?" Ozpin asked of Amber.

Amber shivered. "…Yes," was the reply, little more than a whisper. "…It has to be dealt with. _I_ have to destroy it."

"No," was the firm reply from Ozpin, who motioned at the woman to be still when she'd begun to stand up. "Amber, for all intents and purposes, you might as well have just woken up from your coma. Your body is still weak, too weak to be moving around much which is why we're having this conversation down here with you rather than in my office or elsewhere."

"That sure didn't seem to stop you from dumping all of that info on me suddenly," Amber shot back. "Isn't stopping you from asking me about what happened too despite my having 'just woken up.'"

Glynda watched as Ozpin had the decency to look a little apologetic, but only for a moment. "A good point. But please trust us on this. We do mean to help you and while I may be overeager here with the information, we just want to do right by you in the end." His gaze softened a bit. "Whatever this thing you mentioned is, looking for and confronting right now isn't the best idea for _any_ of us."

And that was something Glynda could certainly agree with her friend about. While she was now worried about whatever this new threat may be, if it really was here in Beacon still, going after it right now would only put the students at risk. And with her and Ozpin having forgone sleep in favor of this current talk, they may not be able to fight at their absolute best, especially not if Amber tried to insist on personally dealing with this thing as she now was.

And she ought to make this point known now.

"Amber," she began. "While Ozpin and I understand this… thing… may very well be a huge threat, dealing with it now while it's still in the academy would only put students and the faculty at risk of being caught in the crossfire. And Ozpin, now really is not the time to be putting her through so much after she'd woken up. I accepted you telling her the situation, but expecting her to now tell us her side of the story while she's still clearly in need of care is not something I will allow. Even if you are my boss."

She directed her gaze from Amber to Ozpin during her slight lecture just now, alternating slowly between them as they digested her words. She was most pleased to see that they seemingly understood.

"You're right, Glynda… my apologies," Ozpin replied, sighing right after. "Due to my own stake in the matter, I allowed my emotions to get the better of me."

Inwardly smiling, she now focused all of her attention on Amber, who seemed not quite ready to back down…

But thankfully she eventually did, very reluctantly so. "…Even now, I can still feel its presence. During my coma, it was just a small little sensation due to my state, but now that I'm awake… it almost feels like I could easily drown in this feeling if I try to focus too much on it." The Fall Maiden grimaced, biting her lip for a moment. "Personally, I don't like this…. but I understand. Even when I fully recover from whatever was done to me, I'll try to keep from going after it for now."

Now Amber looked at her and Ozpin with steel in her eyes. "But if it comes across me instead or if I feel it go far enough away from this place to risk it… I will take it on."

"That's fine," Ozpin agreed.

"Acceptable," Glynda now said, throwing her two lien in once more.

"Good to know," Amber said with a smile, which prompted the two to return it slightly.

A sort of awkward but otherwise peaceful silence then fell upon them.

Until.

"Now then," Amber suddenly said, now looking a little embarrassed. "Any chance I can get some actual clothes?"

* * *

A few more hours pass by and now it's morning for good. Students wandered into the cafeteria leisurely, eager for some breakfast before starting their classes. Friends walked together, chatting and laughing. Some that considered one another 'rivals' of a sort traded good natured banter as they went to go stand in line for their food. The cooks struck up some small talk with particular students during their work.

All in all, it was starting off to be a fairly typical, but otherwise good day.

Except for one Lie Ren, who was more certain than ever that his spirit animal must be a sloth.

Although he did his best to remain upright and put together, the raven haired young man was on the verge of slipping into a veritable coma, having had very little sleep throughout the past night. The little sleep he actually did get was abrupt and light.

And while he was somewhat loathe to do so, he put the blame on his teammates/friends a little bit.

Normally many guys his age would internally squee at being the only boy dorming with 3 young women, ranging from the dangerously bubbly Nora to the adorkable but buxom clumsy leader Jeanne to the tall, curvaceous and sweet 'Invincible Girl' Pyrrha.

However, Ren was most certainly not enthused by his situation. What most guys his age didn't seem to realize was that girls were just as much human as they were, which meant they too were prone to late night bathroom trips, loud snoring, equally flailing about in their sleep (in Jeanne's case), and using others as body-pillows with a serious deathgrip (in Nora's case and much to his own misfortune).

Not even Pyrrha, who usually acted like a model student alongside Weiss, was exempt from this. While she was a quiet and peaceful sleeper, she was the one out of the four of them most prone to go to the bathroom at night, something both surprised and irked Ren since on a handful of occasions so far, she's unintentionally made him wait to use it.

Seriously, just why does she use the bathroom so much? She doesn't even drink that much to start with.

Anyways, this all went a long way to explaining why the young man looked like a zombie right now, complete with the slow and awkward shuffling of the feet and slight groaning.

However, Nora was oblivious to his plight. "Ren, pancakes! We must get them now!" she all but screamed from beside him. His eardrums reverberated dangerously from the volume of her words.

He hardly had time to say anything before he was forcefully pulled by Nora and by the time his mind began to genuinely comprehend his surroundings, he was being made to carry a tray stacked high with pancakes, syrup almost dripping off of the stack and onto his head.

He grumbled only slightly. For despite his (internal) complaints, all of his years spent with Nora had gotten him used to this sort of thing. Still, as he walked with Nora to where his other friends sat, he longed immensely for the sweet sanctum of his bed, alone so that he may rest.

Alas, that was a dream that was a ways off. First, he had to buckle down for today…

…Which now started off fully with him sitting beside his team across from team RWBY. "Morning," he said to the all-girl team, doing a good job at not appearing dead on the inside.

The four of them returned his greeting with their own before immediately resuming whatever chat they had started up with Jeanne and Pyrrha moments ago, the latter two having opted just to head straight for team RWBY from the get-go.

He was surprised to see that Blake was there at the table too. Just what had happened? She'd run away days ago and was now just sitting there with the rest of her team?

Well, that mystery aside, Ren was okay with this. With Nora now digging into her pancakes, he now had perhaps several moments to himself. So long as he was able to block out the surrounding noise and chatter – something he definitely had practice with, it must be said – he'd be able to take his time fully waking up from his pseudo-funk. Maybe then, once he's more alert, he'll get the full story on why Blake was suddenly back.

However, before he could close himself off from his surroundings, he picked up just a bit of what his friends – specifically Ruby – was saying.

"S-So then after Penny beat down the White Fang goons-!"

Well now. That was definitely something worth listening in on. But he was clearly missing a lot of details. Time to break his mold a bit and correct this.

"Excuse me," he began politely. "But just what are you talking about?"

Jeanne was the one to answer him. The second he finished asking, his blonde leader immediately turned in her seat with wide eyes filled with shock and wonder. "Ren! You're not going to believe this, but Ruby and Blake here just encounter Roman Torchwick last night!"

Now _that_ was surprise.

"And he was working with the White Fang!" Jeanne's fellow blonde, Yang, chipped in.

What.

Blinking once, Ren looked now to Nora, who'd stopped her manic eating – mainly because she actually had already finished eating – to now look at their friends.

Glancing back at team RWBY, he spoke. "Any chance you could start from the beginning again?"

Ruby gladly obliged and told them all again, with some additional input from Blake, of what had occurred just last night. What a tale it'd been, to say the least.

But as Ruby finished her tale, Ren immediately narrowed his eyes as several things occurred to him. Feeling more awake now thanks to what he's learned, he immediately zeroed in on the current issue.

"So, you're back for good," he said to Blake.

Said girl shuffled awkwardly in place. "…Yes. This entire morning, Weiss and Yang had been catching me up on what I've missed. I'm sorry to have worried you guys too." She looked and sounded genuinely apologetic.

And she was right to sound so – his team had been just as worried for her as her own team had been.

"A-Ah," Jeanne began. "We're just glad to have you back. And that you're okay! But should you really be walking around after what happened last night?"

Although his leader had asked that in concern, Ren was thinking of that very same question as well along more practical lines. After such an incident, just why and how were Ruby and Blake able to just suddenly return to their daily lives like this? Not that he'd wish such a thing upon them, but given their actions, wouldn't it have been more fitting to punish them somehow for their involvement in the mess? From what Ruby had said, it seemed as if the two of them had done little to actually resolve the situation given the fact that Torchwick had gotten away in addition to…

"But if you don't mind me asking, what happened after Ms. Goodwitch came to bring you two back? And what about the headmaster? Did he talk to you afterwards?" Pyrrha asked, suddenly grabbing his attention.

"A-Ah, well she gave us a stern lecture, but then she got a message on her scroll," Ruby began. "After that, she just immediately dismissed us and told us to just head back to our dorms as long as we felt fine."

"And that we are to never do such a thing again," Blake chipped in now. "After that, she took off and left us alone."

"Until these two finally came back to the room!" Yang said, throwing an arm around her partner. Although she hid it well, it was clear that she was very glad to have her friend back and in one piece. Same thing went for her younger sister.

And did Ren's eyes deceive him or did Weiss smile a little at that too? And did Blake just return said smile with one of her own? Before, the two of them had been amicable with one another, but not notably much… so did they all have some kind of conversation last night about this? Despite what Ruby and Blake had both told him and his friends, it was pretty clear that some other details were getting left out here.

"Blake…" Ruby suddenly spoke up. She looked at the girl hopefully before shifting her glance momentarily to Ren and the rest of team JNPR. "Uhm, not to suddenly switch tracks, but do you plan on…?"

The small smile on Blake's face fell and now the B of team RWBY nodded firmly. "Later on… I need to tell you four something," she then said.

Ren and his three teammates/friends all shared a look of wonder and confusion. "Okay?" Jeanne then replied on their behalf. "O-Oh, but what about my brother?! You said he showed up to help you – i-is he okay?!"

Ah, there goes her not-so-hidden brocon side. Ren almost inwardly sighed, more so when he saw Pyrrha lean a little more forward in her seat, her interested piqued yet again.

"Oh yeah, the professor was fine!" Ruby now said, her serious look from just a second ago gone. "You should've seen it – he shrugged off that beam like it was nothing!"

As Ruby began to regale them with some of the specifics regarding the professor – which wasn't much due to having watched from afar – Ren watched as Jeanne looked thoroughly awed whilst Pyrrha was sporting a bit of a blush.

Hot flash, maybe?

As for Nora, she too looked interested in what Ruby was saying and that was understandable – his friend had long since had a fondness for all things violent despite her good nature.

As for himself, however, Ren was more confused and intrigued than anything else. While his friends seemed content with knowing that the professor had come to help last night, he had to question just how the young professor had even known where to go in the first place. According to some additional info that a reluctant and perturbed Blake was now filling in, the man had shown up before things had truly escalated so he couldn't have pinpointed them by sound or something.

And then there was the fact that he'd taken a beam head on… if Ruby's now dramatically acted out display of power wasn't all hyperbole, then this beam would've likely killed most other hunters. Yet the professor apparently survived it with little more than clothing damage…

That wasn't normal at all.

There'd always been more than meets the eye regarding Jaune Arc, but Ren had never bothered looking any deeper into this mystery for one reason or another – lack of time, loss of sleep, everyone having a right to privacy and secrets – but now things were beginning to grab his interest rather strongly here. Especially since it seemed unlikely that the man in question would now start to fall into the background.

As it eventually came time for class to start, Ren mused if it was time he start getting a little more active in cracking this mystery now…

* * *

As classes for the day now began, the blackness went 'still' as Jaune began to make his way towards the first class he was supposed to be sitting in on. Apparently, one Peter Port had suddenly messaged him on that scroll device and requested him to sit in on some of his morning classes, out of a good natured attempt to get Jaune to experience how other classes are ran.

Jaune had obliged and now as he made his way to the older professor's first class, the blackness kept itself content by silently watching how some late students reacted to its companion's passing presence.

Some greeted Jaune cheerfully.

Others looked at him silently, either with a sense of reverence or physical want in the case of some females… and males.

But some of the 'Faunus' had looked at the man somewhat cautiously, fearfully.

Which was expected.

However, the blackness was incapable of genuinely feeling worry so it merely acknowledged this fact and left it be, occasionally swishing about as Jaune's coat.

Instead it kept itself occupied with thoughts on the Fall Maiden and its future plans.

It had told Jaune much earlier this morning to try and keep away from the maiden in question. That was something of a lie. For it knew as well as Jaune knew that such a task would be impossible. Despite how big this Beacon Academy was, it'd only be a fairly brief time before contact with the maiden was made through one situation or another.

And in actuality, that was what the blackness wanted to happen.

Jaune's physical training, while great, was slowly becoming unable to push him anymore. While increasing the regimen again would fix that, it'd do the blond much more good to obtain some additional combat experience. And more or less a life-or-death situation would help with that. After all, a maiden, even one that was currently as diminished as the Fall Maiden, would be far more powerful and skilled than those that had come before her.

Roman Torchwick had been little more than gnat when compared to Jaune in terms of power and skill. The now deceased thief may have been a skilled brawler with that cane of his, but at the end of it all, he had been hardly worthwhile.

That young woman from the pier had been a far more worthy opponent, but despite Jaune's own thoughts on the matter, the blackness too had found her lacking as a foe. If Jaune had truly gone all out, the woman would've been dealt with easily.

Hence why the maiden was necessary now. All for the continued growth of Jaune Arc, who had yet to reach his full potential.

Ah, how infantile the blond still was, both physically and in terms of aura. But that wasn't his fault.

Normally, people are born with small amounts of aura that later grow with the passage of time – especially during puberty – and training. Its quality can grow with the emotional state of its wielder as well.

However, Jaune was very much the opposite of this universal norm. Rather than be born with a small amount of aura and train to increase the amount, he was born with an absolutely massive quantity of it, possessing far more aura than everyone else in history and instead had to train to fully access all of it.

Which was very much appropriate given his 'circumstances.'

At any rate, when his parents had performed the aura unlocking chant during his childhood, they'd only been able to bring to the surface a meager _fraction_ of Jaune's full aura reserves. Combined with the training he then began doing when he once wielded Crocea Mors and it became obvious why he'd once been above average in his old combat school.

The training he used to do had been fairly intense, yes, but only again by the standards of others. For one such as him, it hadn't been anywhere near enough to truly push his limits and because of this unknowing 'slacking,' he'd struggled to achieve and maintain his above average grades in combat.

But the blackness had made sure to try and correct that after it had made contact with him those two years ago, when Jaune had been out in the badlands back then and had fallen into the cave it had been residing in for a long time. It hadn't been chance that he'd stumbled into the cave, however… it had reached out to him even before then and had guided him to it.

Since then, it had converted a good 80% of its very being into a sort of 'aura stimulant' meant to further draw out Jaune's massive aura reserves, a process that was still ongoing to this very day. Furthermore, in order to ensure that Jaune's body wouldn't break down from the massive amount of aura he'd eventually have at his disposal, it had made it a point to drastically increase the intensity of his training, after having requested he'd do away with Crocea Mors, which would've only had him focus on increasing his physical abilities enough to serve as a defensive fighter.

In addition to this training, however, the blackness had also taken steps to ensure his physical growth will be on par with the _full_ unlocking of his aura, manipulating the young man's very muscles to tear and heal at regular intervals every single day, making him just a little bit stronger, tougher, faster every single day.

And the blackness genuinely _hoped_ that this would be enough for now. For in order to fully achieve his true potential, Jaune's body and aura must at least be comparable in level before his 'semblance' can be fully activated. If Jaune's body wasn't at a tough enough level to handle his growing amount of aura, then he'd prematurely ascend as his aura overwhelms his body… and that wouldn't end well. In order for him to properly ascend, he'd need his body capable of first handling his aura before even thinking of casting it off.

And only then may Jaune be able to think himself of being near its now former level of power.

Ah, how it recalls its former might. A shame that for all of its power prior to finally meeting Jaune, it had proved itself incapable of achieving its own goal. Admittedly, its goal wasn't one that could be achieved through sheer power alone.

Which made its breaking of the moon all those millennia ago very, very pointless. Detrimental, in fact given how things still were to this day.

But time was a great teacher and while thinking and planning out things well in advance wasn't its original role, it had learned to grow and adapt a bit beyond its purpose.

Now it was a matter of making sure Jaune was prepared to achieve what it had failed to achieve.

Even if it meant throwing him and a few others into a bit of danger along the way.

* * *

 **More of a filer chapter than anything else… but nonetheless, I hope you all will appreciate the things I've come to set up with this.**

 **I especially hope that the 'blackness' section there at the end will give you all something to mull over and ponder over what it could really mean, ha ha ha.**

 **Whelp, not much more else to say here other than that I hope you still enjoyed the chapter!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	17. Chapter 17

Anyone else really not liking the weather right now? First it was nice and cool, befitting of the Fall season, and now suddenly it's warm and incredibly sunny as if it were still Summer! I know that California's weather is a mess along with many other areas due to global warming and all… but damn, it just needs to stay consistent for like a whole week!

Sigh…

Well, this odd weather week aside, I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. Family's okay, friends are doing great… that's what matters!

Ha, honestly not much else to say here, so let's get on with the chapter!

P.S. With volume 4 now starting, there may very well naturally be a chance I won't be incorporating any new bombshells from it into this fic. Depends on how it plays out.

Chapter 17

Weiss could honestly admit to herself that in just the span of a few days, she'd come to grow as a person. Prior to her argument with Blake, she'd had a far less than stellar opinion on not just the White Fang, but all Faunus as well.

However, in light of her teammate and friend having run away and nearly gotten killed, she'd come to rethink a few things especially what points Blake had made to her during their argument all those days ago. And after having finally talked things out with her last night upon her return to Beacon, the SDC heiress could now say that she was going to start slowly changing her views on Faunus, partially because clearly she didn't know the struggles Faunus had to go through and partially because she owed Blake this much as a form of apology.

But before she could truly dedicate her all to doing that, she must first survive the current ordeal:

Professor Peter Port's class.

Inwardly, she screamed. For contrary to what people may think of her dutifully taking notes during the jolly man's 'epic tales,' she too was overwhelmingly bored. She just hid it far better than most behind a wall built up from years of strict private tutoring that demanded her full attention. So while she was feeling just as tempted as her partner/leader to just sit and do other things (not that she'd ever admit this to Ruby), she was being driven by her own upbringing to just keep on taking notes even as the current part of the professor's story reached a more unbeneficial part to everyone.

Oh well, at least his tales of when he battled Grimm were helpful; they served as surprisingly good ways of improving tactics if one actually listened to how he defeated certain foes whilst growing up.

Still, this did little to make Weiss enjoy the class overall, though her respect for the professor remained unaffected. After all, one doesn't get to live as a huntsman to become the professor's age without being skilled enough to do so. The world of Remnant was a very dangerous place to roam around.

Her normally impeccable attention, however, did shift slightly when Blake – currently seated beside her – flinched slightly, her ears hidden behind that bow of hers wilting just a bit.

Looking out of the corner of her eyes to see what had caused this reaction in her, Weiss honestly wasn't too surprised to see it was because of the young assistant professor that was currently leaning up against the wall near Professor Port.

Apparently, the young but skilled Jaune Arc had been asked to come here and experience firsthand how this Grimm Studies class operates, according to what the professor had said earlier when class had actually started.

And his presence alone was answer enough for Weiss about Blake's reaction. By this point in time, she along with Ruby and Yang, were well aware of how Blake seemed to feel about the enigmatic blond especially after what she said had transpired last night.

But nonetheless, Weiss couldn't help but question if such a reaction was truly warranted. While it was certainly odd how the blind assistant professor appeared to be having wandering eyes, to suddenly flinch like Blake just did just because his gaze(?) swept past where she sat seemed a bit much.

But given how, now that she actually focused, the other Faunus students and some human ones remained fairly alert today whilst giving the blond hesitant glances, perhaps there was more truth to what Blake had once said about the blond youth than she'd originally thought.

Well, at any rate, Weiss was finding him rather impressive right now for the sole fact that he seemed to be just as fully awake as she was while the shorter and heftier professor continued his mind-destroying tales of youth.

He didn't even seem all that bored! So either he was dwelling on other thoughts or he was _actually_ somewhat enjoying Professor Port's story!

Truly impressive, almost as much as what Ruby said he did last night.

Weiss inwardly hummed as she continued her note taking.

Perhaps there would be some slight fun after all in continuing to observe this professor.

* * *

Peter Port was once again keenly aware of the sort of effect his tale was having on his students. On a good day, only a few of them would be comatose from boredom. On a bad day, virtually all of them would look ready to commit a mass suicide.

However, it seemed today was proving to be a break from this norm!

Indeed, if his eyes weren't deceiving him, it looked as if a majority of the students were alert to various degrees. And he knew why as well, noticing some of the students, mainly the Faunus ones, try to subtly glance to his left where one Jaune Arc was located at.

Hmm, what an effect this young man appeared to be having! To have so many students focus on him simply by being there… truly, this young man was just getting more and more interesting by the day.

Peter was aware of his feats from the spars he's had with students in the initial week of the school year. He had been made aware of how the assistant professor had generally fought during the Forever Falls incident and just much earlier this morning, Glynda had quietly informed the rest of the faculty about the pier incident – alternatively called the SDC shipping incident among some others – just last night, an incident that had involved two of their students alongside the young blond and one other.

To say that the blond young man was becoming increasingly intriguing may honestly be an understatement by this point and Peter found his own blood beginning to boil in excitement.

Ah, how the years have failed to change him. Much, that is. Back in his youth, he'd hungered for challenge daily. When Grimm had failed to satiate his battle lust, he'd go about politely seeking challenge from fellow hunters and other warriors.

While he'd certainly 'cooled off' over the past many years, this striving for challenge never quite went away and now with hearing all about what the blond assistant professor had been up to, this hunger of his began to rear its figurative head after so many years of dormancy.

Honestly, he hadn't felt this giddy about anything since he first met Ozpin and Glynda in battle, back before he'd ever been hired here at Beacon.

And it was partially for this reason that he requested Jaune to be here. Officially, it was so that the blond could experience how other classes were genuinely like. But unofficially, it was so that Peter could once again observe the young man discreetly.

With an expertise honed through decades of training and experience, Peter continued his tale whilst observing Jaune out of the very corner of his eyes, noting every muscle shift he made and taking note of his breathing and facial features.

It was extremely subtle, but it would appear that the boy was in a sort of transitional stance – one where he could either switch to a sudden attack or just collapse fully into a relaxing pose at the drop of a hat. It may sound stupid, but that was exactly the sort of posture Jaune was currently taking up.

Underneath his mustache, Peter actually grinned. From what he understood, Jaune was apparently self-trained. In which case, the boy certainly knew what he'd been doing, for he was trained quite well. As far as the professor could tell, the only thing the young man lacked was experience.

Well that was something that could be easily rectified!

In all honesty, the little plan that he'd come up with earlier before class had even started was liable to get him in trouble with Glynda… but alas, for the sake of satiating his curiosity and ever-boiling blood, this must be done!

"Now then, how about a reenactment?!" he suddenly exclaimed to his students, finishing up his tale of when he'd once fought a particularly skilled fellow huntsman, one that had been fairly gifted at countering his every move.

His sudden bellow had certainly grabbed the sudden of everyone, the volume of his words having been noticeably greater than what was considered the norm for him.

And Peter could only smirk inwardly at how confused they all looked, their attention having been so focused on Jaune for the most part that many of them now frantically tried to remember what he'd been saying before.

Bah! As if that mattered to him. As long as they continued to do their assigned readings and homework, he wasn't going to get bothered by them not listening. Besides, he had a plan to enact!

It was really quite a simple one: under the guise of playing out one of his battles from the past, he'd use Jaune as his 'pretend sparring partner' and test his mettle for himself! That way, he will finally learn firsthand just how tough Beacon's assistant professor truly whilst also giving the young blond some more combat experience!

It was foolproof!

"Now, now, everyone! No need to get so worked up over volunteering!" Peter then bellowed. "For I already have someone in mind! In fact, it's why I asked for him to be here in the first place!"

He then turned to Jaune, whose blind eyes focused on him in confusion and intrigue. "Jaune, I'd like for you to be my partner in this reenactment of mine!"

It was perfect. There was absolutely no way that this little scheme of his could fai-!

"Uhhh… no?"

* * *

Unlike virtually all of the students barring Weiss and Pyrrha, Jaune actually had been listening to most of Peter's tale and had actually found himself rather intrigued by what he said. Truly, the Grimm Studies professor must have been quite the powerful huntsman to have pulled off such feats in the past.

That being said, his attention had been split here and there during the telling of the tale between listening to it and mentally conversing with his hidden-in-plain-sight friend further about the Fall Maiden.

Because of this, he had been just as taken aback by Peter's sudden talk of a reenactment as the students had been and when the portly professor had turned to him and requested him to take part in it, he just couldn't help the answer that had slipped out of his mouth.

And now here he stood awkwardly while his Aura Vision allowed him to see Peter's gold and burgundy colored aura flare with surprise.

"W-What?!" Wow, Peter sounded really taken aback. He sounded like someone had gone and literally taken the wind right out of his sails.

Right, time to explain himself.

"Err, not that I'm against it or anything," Jaune began, holding up his hands to try and placate the older man. He somewhat winced when he heard some students snicker at this development. It made him feel bad despite his instinctive response. "It's just that if we really give this reenactment our best effort, won't the classroom kind of get… you know, damaged?" Given the sort of attacks that were utilized in the battle Peter had been speaking of, replicating them would prove, ah, disastrous to their current surroundings.

But it's not that he was actually against Peter's proposal here. It was just a reenactment, after all. What more can there possibly be to it? Besides, it could help take his mind off of the Fall Maiden, who currently plagued his thoughts with worry.

And further besides that…

 _You should accept, Jaune._

His friend wished for him to go through with this. No doubt because he viewed this as an actual battle rather than the play-fighting that it was.

The second his words left his lips, he saw Peter's aura immediately undergo a change due to the change in his emotions, going from shock to something akin to elation.

Wow, Peter must really want to act this old battle of his out.

"An excellent point, Jaune! So then if we are to take this to the arena, we'll be able to fig- act out as we see fit!" Peter replied.

"Umm, I believe Glynda is teaching some fourth years a few extra pointers before their next mission there right now," Jaune in turn replied to Peter.

And he was pretty sure that Glynda wouldn't like her current time in the arena to be disturbed for any reason.

This appeared to be something Peter realized too, for he merely nodded in understanding. "Very well then." He turned to the class. "Students, to the main avenue! You're all in for a wonderful treat!"

With quite the fast power walk, bordering even on a jog, Peter exited the classroom, leaving behind Jaune who now couldn't help but question the professor now.

Indeed, he could only stare after Peter's now rapidly accelerating form in confusion before he suddenly felt the equally bewildered stares of the students.

"Uh, well, guess we're all going to get some air today?" he said before letting out a weak chuckle.

When no one laughed or otherwise made any real noise, Jaune immediately began to edge awkwardly towards the door.

 _Go, Jaune. To battle._

Ah, and there's his friend again telling him to basically hurry up. Well, might as well get this over with; class was set to end in about another fifteen minutes and he didn't want the students to be late to Professor Peach's class next. From what he was told about the rarely seen woman, she could be a stickler for punctuality.

So without any further words, he left off to join Peter outside, the students now slowly following his lead.

…He sure hoped that this reenactment wouldn't be too awkward.

* * *

Mercury wasn't sure what he found himself wanting to do more right now. Should he just go inside the rundown factory and give Roman a good old fashioned smackdown for making him come on this little 'checking up on' errand? Or should he just head back to Cinder right now and lie about having checked up on their slimy friend?

In either case, the young grey haired man wasn't feeling very enthused right now.

Cinder had been pretty pissed last night from what he's heard about Roman's failed Dust heist and before he had even gotten some time to kick back and unwind after another day of hunting down White Fang traitors – a favor that Cinder, or rather he himself, had to pay to keep the White Fang's continued support – Cinder had all but grabbed him by the ear and launched him out of their current hold up, having told him to go and personally check on the not-so-great thief.

Damn… he was feeling kind of hungry. And bored. And increasingly annoyed too as he kept on walking through the abandoned industrial zone to get to that stupid factory.

Seriously, he understood why Roman had to hole up here, but the candy-looking man could've at least tried to maybe set up a crap-ton of air freshners across the area. This whole place seriously just smelled rancid.

Oh well, no more point whining about it. As things currently stood, he was more or less right outside the stupid factory and even he was getting tired of listening to his own complaints. Might as well just get this over with and head back to the more populated parts of Vale to get some grub.

"Here we gooooo….." Mercury muttered to himself, trailing off as he now quickly neared the factory.

His eyes, which had been fairly wide open before, now narrowed. His muscles unconsciously tensed up too as an unnatural sensation began to wash over him.

…He knew the factory was rundown and all, but was it supposed to giving off such an unsettling feeling? Felt like he'd just walked into a huge freezer, a powerful chill just rushing down his spine to his artificial legs.

Taking a few moments to circle around to the back of the factory now, the much more focused youth immediately noticed the ill-hidden bullhead that Roman and his men had been given.

And with absolutely no guards in sight either.

And this further rankled the young man. While he personally found the White Fang to be a stupid and often inept bunch, they at least knew how to do some things right and serving as hidden guards at certain kinds of locations was one of them.

Yet he couldn't detect any guards at all. For one of his caliber, doing so wouldn't have been that difficult a thing unless the people he was looking for were truly exceptional and that word and the White Fang simply don't go together in a sentence for the most part.

Which just begs an immediate question: where the hell are the guards?

Something was seriously _wrong_ here. More so than whatever Cinder seemed to suspect was wrong aside from Roman's failures.

Suppressing an uncharacteristic gulp, Mercury now headed to the factory's back entrance, readying himself mentally for whatever may lie in wait for him.

The sights he came across, however, were things that he hadn't been prepared for.

* * *

Jeanne was a happy little camper right now.

No more tales from Professor Port today! Granted, she and the other students would have to bear witness to a reenactment of one such tale, but meh, small price to pay.

Especially since her brother was to be taking part in it!

Ah, how worried she'd been when Ruby had initially told her and her team of what had happened last night. While the younger leader had assured her that her brother kicked ass though – naturally! – that still hadn't quite been enough to fully quell her worry.

But having seen her brother stroll into Grimm Studies right before class actually started had sent relief and joy soaring through her very being, glad to know for a fact that her older brother was clearly doing well. A shame that she hadn't been able to actually talk to him earlier though since the class had started before she could do so. And thanks to the usual mind-numbing effect of Professor Port's tale, she'd been in her also usual living dead state during class earlier, having kept surprisingly docile and quiet in the face of such boredom.

…Oh God, she hoped Jaune wouldn't be disappointed in her for not paying attention though!

"A fight! A fight! A fight~" Nora hummed aloud from beside her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Not quite a real fight, Nora…" Ren muttered from beside the hyperactive girl.

Jeanne watched as the N of team JNPR ignored his words though. The normally bubbly girl was simply too happy to spend the remainder of Grimm Studies outside and not having to listen to the professor's tales of boredom to really focus on Ren's words.

Poor Ren, having to act as Nora's minder so much! Jeanne honestly couldn't tell how he did it sometimes; every now and then, Nora would just tease her and leave her too flustered to offer up a proper counter or chastisement. To have to act as the straight man virtually all the time must be very tiring…. Which in hindsight would now explain his near-constant fatigue.

Damn, she was getting more insightful as a leader every day now! Nice!

From her other side, Pyrrha chuckled. "Well, I think everyone's happy to have to watch a 'fight,' Ren. I think many find that more appealing than 'story time.' Even if it's only a play of sorts."

Jeanne watched Ren go still for a second, contemplating the redhead's words. Then slowly, he shrugged as if to say 'fair point.'

And Jeanne couldn't agree more herself! "Oh! Maybe we'll also see how tough the professor really is too!" she exclaimed excitedly.

One of the (many) reasons why she found it nigh-impossible to listen to Professor Port's tales in class was that she couldn't help but wonder sometimes if the man was embellishing his stories here and there. After all, just how many 11 year olds are actually tough enough to wrestle three Ursas at once? And win?

She shared a look with her friends to see if they agreed and to her happiness, they did, Pyrrha and Ren nodding thoughtfully at what she'd just said. Except for Nora, who still just looked too happy for a fight of some kind to really care.

"Gather around now, everyone!" Professor Port suddenly yelled, making Jeanne and a few others jump a bit from fright. "For you shall feast your eyes on a magnificent fight!"

"I told you it was a fight!" Nora then exclaimed right after the professor spoke.

"Nora…" Ren began. "He didn't mean it."

"Right, Mr. Lie! A reenactment, this is!" the professor then said. Was it just Jeanne's imagination or did he sound a little hasty there?

Bah, what does it matter anyways? Better to actually focus on what was to happen!

Especially now that her brother finally came into view. He'd fallen behind earlier to make sure everyone had left the classroom and had only now began to actually approach the older professor when he'd started speaking.

Ah, Jaune looks so cool with that coat of his just billowing in the wind! Made all the more impressive considering there wasn't much of a breeze right now too!

"So…" her brother now spoke, the entire class now completely silent as he stopped within ten feet of Professor Port. "Just how exactly are we going to go about this?"

"Jaune, my boy, is it not obvious?" the jolly professor then replied. He then reached behind his back and hefted his weapon off of it – Blunderbuss, if Jeanne recalled the name right from his many boasts of it during previous classes. The professor must have gone and retrieved his weapon just before rushing here.

"Err… not really, no," Jaune said in confusion, drawing a few snickers from the students at how confused he sounded.

Even Jeanne couldn't help but stifle a giggle. Leave it to her brother to inject some humor into a situation.

Even the professor seemed to laugh a little at Jaune's lost expression. "It's simple, Jaune! We clash until one of us wins!"

And with that, the jolly professor began to take up a combat stance.

Jeanne, standing alongside the rest of the students, couldn't help but scoot forward a bit, eager to see what'll happen.

Her brother will be fine! After all, if he made it through last night without a hassle, then this should be a cakewalk. What's the worst that could happen?

* * *

To say that Jaune was a little confused would probably be an understatement. To be frank, this entire situation was making less sense by the second to him, if only because of how quickly things seemed to have just changed.

From having been suddenly requested to sit in on Peter's class to having to then take part in a reenactment was certainly an odd toss-up to say the least. Again, he'd only rolled with this because it's not like there was any real harm in doing so.

Besides, it'd help him get his mind off the Fall Maiden for now. Plus his hidden friend had stated – which was more or less a stand-in for the word 'command' – to take part in this, if only because he seemed to believe this to be an actual fight.

Jaune wasn't really convinced it was one, however. After all, why on earth would Peter want to fight him of all people? Though he had to admit… judging by Peter's aura shimmering about, the older man was definitely taking this play-fight pretty seriously. So much so that he'd neglected to tell him at all at how he wanted to actually play out this 'fight.'

So with that in mind, was there anything in particular he should d-?

His eyes went wide when Peter suddenly leapt forth from his starting position, all but flying just a few inches off the ground at a speed that didn't befit his large frame one bit.

Peter's weapon, a strange combination of an axe and an old fashioned hunting rifle, lit up intensely with the man's aura as it was swung down at an impressive speed.

Instinctively, Jaune stepped to the side to avoid it, only to immediately follow up with a large back-step when Peter gracefully pivoted upon landing, turning his weapon towards his neck.

Backpedaling a bit more, Jaune put some distance between them, his posture shifting to a more defensive one on pure instinct alone just as the axe portion of Peter's weapon nearly grazed his Adam's apple.

Peter went still upon this happening and Jaune couldn't help but blink a split-second as he realized what had just occurred.

And so he could only verbally respond to this. Surprisingly, in a fairly dull tone too. "…Just what was that supposed to be?" he asked of his senior faculty member. "That felt a little too real," he remarked dryly.

Peter chuckled, but it lacked the loud boisterousness that was normally associated with his voice. "Why, how else to make the reenactment feel truly real? Now, prepare yourself!"

The older man yelled those last three words with his usual bravado and immediately thereafter opened fire upon Jaune.

The blind young man's eyes narrowed as he 'saw' the two rounds coming. The first fired round was laced ever so slightly with aura, magnifying its explosive contents. The second round, however, was filled with far more aura, said aura circulating about in such a way within the Dust round as to increase its penetrative force. Therefore, the second round was the more dangerous of the two.

So in response to this, Jaune simply 'forgot' about the rest of the world around him and focused solely on the challenge that laid before him, already moving to avoid the second round in advance whilst preparing to deal directly with the first one, the explosive one.

Explosions were things that he could deal with easily, having become quite tough of body thanks to his training. As such, he actually _let_ the round hit him, generating a surprising level of force that exceeded the blows of that short woman he'd fought last night.

But to him, such a force was still fairly nothing and instead, he focused as smoke flooded around him from the point of impact. Just as this happened, the second round pass harmlessly by him, missing him by nearly a whole foot.

However, he only marginally noted this now. Peter was his main concern, especially since the man once more rushed at him with weapon drawn back, seemingly undeterred by the smokescreen his shot had caused.

The older and mustachioed man let out a slight battle cry as he spun and swung his weapon deftly at Jaune's right side, a blow that was promptly deflected.

Jaune grunted only slightly as he literally smacked aside the strike. Peter's strike was much heavier than the woman's from before, but again nothing he couldn't deal with; he still had a strength advantage. Still… he'd have to be careful about how he deflected the blows though. That strike just now had actually somewhat hurt upon contact.

A second attack broke his train of thoughts though, Peter clearly unfettered by the knocked back initial strike, his weapon now going Jaune's left knee. A somewhat hasty raising of his leg was enough to avoid a hit, however, and Jaune promptly delivered a light kick forward to push the older man back.

But to his surprise, Peter avoided the pushback by easily moving to the left, once again showcasing a slight case of speed and agility that one would likely never expect from a man as robust as him.

Then Peter lowered his weapon so that it was now pointing at Jaune's stomach and promptly fired.

And unlike before, Jaune wasn't quite able to dodge it this time. Peter's firing speed was surprisingly great.

Grunting as the round made contact against his lower abdomen, Jaune found himself actually pushed back several inches from the sheer force, the round having been fed a great deal of aura that had greatly increased its density while causing it to somehow lose its explosive nature, having essentially rendered the bullet as a miniature cannonball.

But the pain only phase him for the slightest of instances and he managed to throw out his right arm to block the incoming swing from Peter that had followed…

…Only for Peter to suddenly stop and switch from an overhead swing to its opposite, coming now at Jaune from a much lower angle. It slashed him right across the upper part of his stomach, cutting through his shirt and hitting the skin. It was only thanks to his aura and natural toughness that the slash didn't draw blood.

But it definitely hurt, more so than any of the blows that woman last night had landed on him and it was cause enough for Jaune to now immediately backpedal.

Except Peter followed right after him, unleashing a torrent of swings that Jaune was hardpressed to fully fend off against. His arms became blurs as they lashed out, barely deflecting each attack by knocking against the flat side of Peter's weapon every time.

Jaune could only grunt though. He had a definite physical advantage, both in strength and speed, but even with his Aura Vision letting him see which strikes were more enhanced than others and which direction they were coming from, he was beginning to genuinely struggle here.

Peter may be a boisterous and overall lively man, but his tales of his skill and experience were not exaggerated.

But that being said…

"Come Jaune!" Peter all but roared with anticipation. "This is no fun if you don't take it seriously too! A reenactment deserves our best efforts!"

At that, Jaune's eyes could only narrow. He'd been so caught up in his own thoughts earlier about the Fall Maiden and other things that he hadn't been able to see Peter's true goal despite his not-so-great attempts at disguising it in hindsight. But now that he was focusing on the man, he knew that what he said was, to be blunt, pure bullshit.

This man had simply wanted to fight him for one reason or another. Well, he certainly could've gone about this differently, but then again it evidently wouldn't be Peter if he hadn't gone about this with some type of grandiose action.

Oh well. He supposed he deserved this if he had been so stupid as to not see this coming earlier.

 _Oblige him, Jaune._

His friend's voice echoed in his head suddenly as was usual sometimes during battles. But Jaune didn't mind this at all. His friend had yet to steer him wrong thus far.

And besides, he couldn't always be on the defensive during fights.

So now he lashed out for real.

In spite of Peter's far superior skill, there was the just the slightest of openings in between each of his varied swings and it was during the very next opening that Jaune's left fist went hurtling through, sailing right past the next swing coming his way and reaching Peter faster than his strike could reach Jaune.

With a sound more deafening than even thunder, Jaune's fist impacted harshly against the lower portion of Peter's jaw. In the instant following this sound, Jaune could've sworn he heard the students around them gasp in unison.

But he paid that no mind. What he did pay mind to was that upon making contact, Peter's entire body just seemed to suddenly stop whatever it was doing before and get sent crashing into the ground below, hitting it hard enough to make the entire area shake.

And then Peter all but bounced right off the ground and go sailing back, skipping like some human stone across a proverbial river. He struck ground a few more times, audibly cracking it each time before he finally came to a stop.

And then silence fell upon everything.

Jaune's body suddenly felt ice cold. When he'd struck just now, he'd ended up doing with almost the entirety of his strength –around 80 to 85% of his full might, if he had to try and estimate it. That was considerably more strength than what he'd used last night against that now dead woman and definitely more strength than he'd actually wanted to use just now…

"Oh shit…" he muttered to himself. Peter's swings had been coming at him so fiercely just now that he hadn't quite been able to properly control his strength in time. And while he was certain the man was tougher than his previous opponent, Peter was still getting on in years…

Oh God, just what had he do-?

Laughter erupted, breaking the unsettling silence.

Jaune's eyes went wide as he witnessed through his Aura Vision his opponent begin to _get back up_. While he knew he hadn't actually killed Peter – his aura would've faded away if that had happened – he'd been worried that he'd dealt him a great deal of damage, especially since the man's aura had reacted heavily to the blow, having flickered wildly when he'd struck him.

And yet…

Just how can Peter be getting back up?!

* * *

Tasting blood in his mouth, Peter spat it out and then grinned in delight, ignoring the stunned silent students around them.

Aura was an excellent cushion, capable of vastly decreasing the amount of damage and pain a person actually had to endure, provided said aura was great enough in quantity and quality. And yet with just one sudden blow, the assistant professor had made his vision swim and drawn first blood. Not to mention knocking him back a good ten meters!

Truly, Jaune Arc was an interesting man! Too interesting to have put off crossing figurative blades with him this long!

His blood began to boil even more, drawing out little by little a bit of his old self, from when he was young and had thought himself invincible.

Hefting Blunderbuss up and pointing it at the shocked assistant professor, Peter then spoke. "A truly mighty blow, Jaune! But it shall take more than that to defeat me!" he declared. "Come! Now that the warm-up is done, let's fight for real!"

As his muscles began to tense and slowly fill with aura, Peter charged forward yet again at Jaune.

The most excited of smiles appeared on his face as he did so.

Finally, after so long, he could perhaps feel alive once more.

* * *

 **Honestly hadn't meant to split this fight into two chapters like this, but ultimately that's how it turned out when I ended up fully planning it out, heh heh.**

 **Hope this turn of events doesn't seem too random to you guys, but rest assure this will tie into the story itself later on. As will a number of other things…**

 **That said, don't think I've suddenly gone and forgotten about Amber due to the lack of any real mention of her this chapter. She too will be appearing much more often now in the near future!**

 **Hope you enjoyed this and will enjoy as well how the second half of this fight will go!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	18. Chapter 18

Sorry for the longer-than-average wait, everyone! My birthday just passed by recently and my parents surprised me immensely with a new laptop! Took a while to set up, longer to transfer over all of the files I wanted/needed (original stories, previous fanfic chapters, reference pictures, etc.) and a while longer than even that to get a decent feel for the new laptop. Certainly boots up faster than my now previous one, heh heh.

Now that out of the way, having finally managed to watch the first episode of RWBY vol. 4, I have to say I like the direction the show seems to be going in right now, if only due to the machinations of the antagonists. And on that particular note, I have to say that I'm rather surprised – in a good way – at how some things lined up with what I already had in mind for certain details of this fic. Some, but not all though.

So basically, you can expect (sort of) to see certain little details from vol. 4 make some kind of appearance in this fic, albeit with my twist on it. Just want to let you guys know in advance.

Now then, onto the chapter!

Chapter 18

The buxom blonde brawler of team RWBY was at a genuine loss for words at the sight taking place before her very eyes.

On one hand, there was Professor Port, the big and boisterous Grimm Studies professor showcasing a level of speed, agility, strength and skill unlike anything she had ever seen, blitzing across the area like a human lightning bolt driven by a singular purpose: to beat down the enemy.

And that's exactly who was on the other hand – assistant professor Jaune Arc.

Her fellow blond was easily proving himself to once again be well beyond the level of any student gathered here, easily matching the professor's physical capabilities and lashing out with one fierce attack after another as he finally went on the offensive.

Fists clashed with powerful swings of a blade, making the very air crackle from the sheer force of the blows.

Then Professor Port, whose form was barely more than a blur to her and the others, suddenly switched tracks before her very eyes – literally; the two were perhaps little more than four feet away from her right now – by suddenly disengaging from the current clash, letting go of Blunderbuss in order to try and grapple with Jaune.

But Jaune, surprised as he had looked just now by this, responded immediately, locking hands with the older professor in a sort of pushing-back contest, one that he won with little difficulty, shoving the professor back a good several feet.

Only for the older man to easily keep his balance and grin, catching his weapon with one hand deftly before firing off several rounds at Jaune.

As Yang then watched Jaune dance in between the bullets with a practiced ease, she suddenly seemed to remember to breathe.

This fight was still just getting started, after all. And fainting from lack of air before it ends just wouldn't do at all.

* * *

Nora Valkyrie watched almost hungrily as Jaune quickly closed the gap between him and Professor Port, leaping forth after dodging every single round fired his way.

She knew she had a rather high level of excitement when it came to battle, but it just couldn't be helped in her case. There was just something so very fulfilling about testing one's mettle against another and seeing who comes out victorious.

And right now that's exactly what she was witnessing: two seemingly even opponents duking it out to see who was the better warrior.

She watched with bated breath as Jaune then threw a powerful and blinding fast kick to the midsection at the Grimm Studies professor, only for the older man to parry the strike by using his weapon to smack it aside all whilst pivoting forward gracefully, swinging his weapon at Jaune's arm immediately thereafter.

She watched as Jaune brought up his arm to smack into Professor Port's elbow, deftly stopping the swing just a few centimeters short of impact. Then he followed it up with a quick jab with his other hand, only for the older faculty member to lightly toss his weapon to his free hand and use the flat side of its axe component to guard against the blow.

Said blow still managed to knock him back a few yards, grunting audibly for all to hear.

And Nora could only feel increasingly excited as Jaune ran after the older man, leaping lightly and throwing a powerful knee at his face.

As the Grimm Studies professor tilted back his head to avoid the near-hit, the auburn haired N of team JNPR couldn't help but feel her heart actually skip a beat when it was then followed up by a barrage of near-invisible blows from the assistant professor.

The fight was bound to just keep ramping up in intensity and she didn't want to miss a single millisecond of it.

Hands down, this was the best. Class. EVER!

* * *

Pyrrha tried to keep her breathing neutral as she watched Jaune rain blow after blow upon Professor Port, the latter valiantly dodging or at least deflecting each powerful strike with growing ease. All while Jaune remained in midair too!

When the blond young man finally landed and attempted to stomp on the professor's toes to hold him in place, the Grimm Studies professor merely took one small step back before delivering a sudden punch of his own that connected solidly with the jaw of Jaune.

Pyrrha will admit that she nearly cried out in shock at this, though her partner/friend/team leader certainly did from beside her.

But alas to her (more than pleasant) surprise, the blow barely staggered Jaune and he stomped forward as if he were a giant. A very sexy blond giant, in her opinion, but a giant nonetheless.

She watched his dull blue eyes lock onto the professor with an intensity that once again left her doubting he was really blind, but right now that mattered little to her. Instead all she could really imagine was such a powerful gaze resting on her and now found herself wishing she was the only one here so that she may 'vent' the now familiar feelings welling up inside of her.

She'd nearly lost it when Jaune suddenly returned the punch with interest, catching the Grimm Studies professor right in the gut with a punch so mighty that the ground directly beneath them both cracked from the very _air pressure_ of the swing before the blow had even connected! When it did, she watched as the older of the two men was lifted a few inches off the ground as Jaune drove his fist deeper into his stomach whilst the force behind it was so great that some students off behind the Grimm Studies professor actually got _knocked down_ from it.

But her, ah, 'growing urge' was mollified somewhat when Professor Port, still very much conscious and battle-ready, brought down Blunderbuss upon Jaune's left shoulder, slicing downwards with a level of speed and precision that her own capabilities were put to shame by this display.

Her growing desire was then quieted for good, if only for the time being, when she saw something that she most definitely hadn't expected to see:

Dark red liquid spilling forth as the attack finally reached the end of its arc.

Blood. Professor Port's attack just now had actually drawn blood.

* * *

Jaune wasn't really feeling too hurt right now – merely surprised. In spite of the fairly large gash he now sported, in spite of the blood that now spilled forth from it, the pain of the new wound hardly phased one bit.

Instead, he was more amazed at the fact he'd been actually injured at all.

His aura was extremely great in both quantity and quality despite his 'underdevelopment' as his friend would say and his body was considerably more durable naturally than anyone else's. As such, actually injuring him was far from an easy thing to do, not unless one possessed incredible strength or speed to compensate for sheer brute might.

And yet Peter just now had cut him without too much trouble.

With his Aura Vision, he could see the man's uniquely colored aura ripple softly, indicating a small level of happiness.

Rearing back his fist from having punched him, Jaune could only feel confusion at this. And this was something that had nearly cost him immediately. For right as soon as confusion took hold of him, stalling his next action, Peter actually kicked forward in an attempt to push him back.

Thankfully, he was able to regain his composure in time to block the kick, but couldn't help but cry out in surprise when the guarded blow still managed to send him skidding in place a few feet back.

…Something was wrong here. Peter's strikes were suddenly getting stronger, little by little.

Peter then rushed forward, delivering three scarily precise swings with that weapon of his, one aimed for different spots on his torso.

Jaune dodged each strike as quickly as he could, no doubt sure that his expression right now looked a little harried.

For Peter's movements were gradually picking up speed too.

Not to mention that punch he'd landed on the older man just a second ago… considering how much damage his initial strike had done to Peter, the man hadn't looked as winded with the second blow just now despite having used his _full strength_.

…Peter was getting increasingly more durable too then, it would seem.

But how-?

… _!_

Jaune nearly froze in place as surprise – genuine surprise – from his hidden friend shot through his mind. His friend, mentor, and ally against the threat to come was a being unlike any had directly encountered before save for perhaps one certain individual. But to that same token, his friend wasn't one that was used to feeling genuine emotion… but he was learning overtime, enough to try and replicate 'aloud' the sort of thoughts Jaune himself had had when he was first called here to Beacon.

And yet… here his friend was, feeling surprise. Pleasantly surprised.

 _I'd underestimated this man… keep fighting him, Jaune. Hold nothing back._

Jaune knew right away that his friend must have figured out some sort of secret here about Peter, but alas didn't seem particularly interested in telling him the details right now.

Oh well, he supposed he could ask him later about this because now his interest was greatly piqued as well.

Nonetheless, time to oblige yet again.

His body unfreezing, he moved out of the way just in time to avoid a genuine axe-kick from the older professor, the ground cratering from the sheer power behind the blow.

Skipping back several steps, Jaune took up a defensive stance as he tried to calmly assess the situation, his injury forgotten about completely now as his immense aura already began tending to it.

It was now at this time that he noticed something amiss with his Aura Vision.

Was it just his imagination or did Peter seem to be standing an inch or two taller than he did before? And his belly from before seemed to be a few inches smaller too…

Bah, what was he focusing on?! Just go on the offensive at the best possible chance!

His eyes narrowing and his stance becoming firmer, he now awaited Peter's next move.

* * *

Peter couldn't help but grin like a loon.

What a fight this was shaping up to be so far!

To think that with just two simple blows that Jaune would've inflicted this much damage on him already… truly, this blond youth was turning out to be far more than he had ever hoped for!

But still, it wasn't quite enough just yet – he'd only barely begun to gradually activate his semblance and the young man before him had yet to use his own semblance as well. It wouldn't be a true battle of legend until both of them had started to go all out.

However, that didn't seem to be much of an issue to Peter for they were slowly ramping things up. As things currently stood though, it would be a while longer before he could probably force Jaune to his use semblance, whatever it may be. For while he was slowly becoming able to better match – and eventually surpass – Jaune's physical abilities, for the next few minutes the younger man will hold the physical advantage. And while Peter certainly was superior to the young man in skill and experience, already Jaune was slowly catching up, his movements having become a bit more refined, a bit more certain as he'd gotten used to Peter's own movements.

This was enough to make Peter's heart overflow with anticipation. Just how much further can Jaune go? It was a question that demanded an answer.

And he intended to get that answer now!

Hefting Blunderbuss up, he took aim at Jaune's chest – and paused momentarily.

"What the devil?" Peter muttered, the three words barely ruffling the hairs of his mustache.

Before his observant eyes, the wound he'd dealt to Jaune's shoulder was slowly closing up. Even the damage dealt to his coat seemed to be undoing itself too around the wound!

Aura was a great thing indeed; concentrate hard enough, it was possible to heal one's own wounds, but there were limits to this naturally. But for Jaune's wound to close up on its own without any apparent focus on the young man's part… not to mention his coat too…

His pausing and subsequent thoughts lasted a second longer than they should have.

Before his eyes could adjust to things, Jaune had already cleared the distance between them both and was right up in his face.

Peter internally chided himself whilst trying to take a step back, raising Blunderbuss to try and block whatever came his way-.

-Only to fail horribly.

With speed that his eyes could scarcely follow and with power great enough to gravely injure even Beringels, Jaune unleashed a flurry of blows that started low on Peter's body and worked their way up rapidly.

Peter felt the first hit connect with his left knee. The second hit, his right thigh. The third hit, his pelvis. The fourth hit, his upper stomach. The fifth hit, his chest, just right over the heart. The sixth hit, the side of his neck. And the seventh and final blow struck his face.

Even with his gradual invigoration, the sudden barrage of blows was enough to make the world blur before his eyes, his mind overwhelmed by a growing darkness. Truly, if there was ever a time where one could be so suddenly and viciously knocked out, then this would be it.

But for Peter, all this did was excite him further.

Through sheer willpower and the continuingly gradual activation of his semblance, his vision's blurriness disappeared. His mind cleared and his body no longer felt as if its figurative strings had been severed.

Letting loose a war cry that he was certain would terrify the largest of Ursas into submission, Peter heaved himself forward in spite of the blows having knocked him back a bit. He relished the look of shock on Jaune's face just before he smashed his own right into it.

An audible crack was heard, but it did little to fully cover up the gasps from the students still around them. Peter's grin turned savage, the desire to just fully activate his semblance right off the bat growing stronger.

But he held back on that and instead followed up his headbutt with a series of strikes. Just as Jaune stumbled back in surprise, Peter swung his weapon over and over again with immense speed. Just as Jaune had done to him just now, he now did in kind.

He swung at Jaune's knee, at his thigh, his pelvis, his stomach, his chest, his neck, and face. Each strike of his was delivered with such ferocity that Jaune was forced further back with each hit, which in turn had called for Peter to take bold steps forward each time for the next attack to connect.

But he still had one final move to make, to sort of one-up Jaune.

Right after slashing at Jaune's face, drawing blood across his nose, Peter then took point-blank aim at Jaune's forehead. Channeling as much aura as possible within a millisecond, he then fired the final round loaded in his weapon.

The round naturally struck its target immediately and the resulting explosion was so powerful, so intense and wide-spread that all of the surrounding students had to take several large and hasty steps back to avoid being forcibly blown back.

As for Peter, as swift as the older man had proven himself to be, not even he could've moved quickly enough to escape the blowback, but he knew this and took it like the man he was slowly becoming once again.

He grunted loudly as the explosion blew him back ten meters, but thanks to having reinforced his body further with his aura and semblance, the damage he took was fairly light. As things stood, his aura, quite large in quantity, was only barely on the cusp of hitting the designated yellow zone.

But as for Jaune…

Peter, and the students by extension, could only watch as the explosion had momentarily consumed the young assistant professor completely before he became visible once more, being knocked so far back that he ended up crashing little more than a yard away from Beacon Academy's illustrious statue.

Very vaguely, the Grimm Studies professor could hear a student scream out Jaune's name in worry – the young man's sister, he believed. Some other students looked concerned as well, though some of the Faunus students looked almost relieved in a way.

But Peter paid none of this any mind. Instead, he merely remained in something of a crouch with Blunderbuss in hand. Having not had the foresight to bring extra ammo, he was now out of bullets, meaning he was now limited to close combat. His specialty, certainly, but as Jaune had proven thus far close combat was his forte as well.

He must be vigilant, must be ready to pounce like the human beast he slowly returning to being if – no, _when_ – his young and worthy foe began to get back up.

And he certainly didn't have to wait particularly long for that to happen.

Before any of the concerned students could even think to rush to Jaune's side, the blind young man began to move.

But something seemed wrong, wrong enough to make every single figurative warning bell in Peter's mind and body rattle off like crazy.

Audibly groaning, Jaune could be seen turning over and trying to pick himself back up. But despite the young man still raring to go from the looks of it, it was taking him far too long to even take up a kneeling position.

His entire body was spasming. Even with his coat and fairly loose clothing on, Peter could literally see the muscle spasms as the wounds he inflicted upon Jaune healing themselves.

When the young blond finally managed to raise his head towards Peter, the older man could see that his round to his face had at beast left a minor burn where it had contact, a burn that was now disappearing entirely.

Then the oddest of things happened – Jaune's body, specifically where he'd been injured, suddenly flashed a bright white light.

On pure instinct, Peter kept his distance and refused to budge for now.

Just what was going on now?

* * *

Were it capable of doing so, the blackness might've sighed in worry. But because it was still grasping human emotion, it merely took stock of the situation its friend and champion was currently in.

And things honestly weren't looking too good. In hindsight, however, this should have probably been expected.

Even during battle, the blackness still made it a point to manipulate Jaune's own aura to constantly (and completely) tear and heal his muscles, all so that the young man's body would grow a bit stronger overall during battle.

However, doing so during this battle had appeared to backfire now. Because of the wounds Peter had dealt to Jaune, even though said injuries had been relatively tame, this hadn't stopped Jaune's aura from acting on its own to heal the damage.

But because it had attempted to do so whilst the blackness continually manipulated it for Jaune's muscle tearing/healing process, the aura was now on the verge of running amok due to being pulled in many different directions all at once.

Now a decent portion of the aura Jaune currently had available to him was welling up dangerously, surging to a near bursting point and now the blackness had to redirect its focus in order to try and regulate it all.

But it wasn't enough still; the blackness could only rein in and stabilize so much of Jaune's aura at any given second. So while it was able to take back control of a majority of the flaring up aura, there was still a small portion of that 'decent portion' that it could not regulate in time, said uncontrolled aura nearly popping out now through the wounds it was healing.

If this kept up, Jaune might partially explode. And if that happened… well, Jaune will survive, but his body…

 _Jaune, you need to concentrate and release the remaining aura in some other way._

Even in its greatly diminished state, its power was great. But not enough to rein in all of the acting up aura. Therefore, it would have to require Jaune to lend his aid in this endeavor.

It now just had to keep focusing on the aura it could control and see if Jaune could handle the rest.

* * *

Jaune inwardly swore after his friend had spoken to him.

His aura control wasn't exactly the best in Remnant. It was why he couldn't further enhance himself with it without using his 'semblance' (complete with the air quote mark due to how his friend constantly pronounced it). It was also why in the end, he had to build up his body so that it could survive the 'ascension process' as his friend also liked to call it.

So to now be told that it was up to him to somehow control the remaining bit of his overflowing aura was one of the last things he wanted to be told right now.

But nonetheless, he had to try. For if he failed, there was no telling what'll end up happening to the people around him.

"Jeanne…" he muttered, his Aura Vision detecting his dear sister's blue aura out of the corner of his otherwise blind eyes, her aura shaking wildly from her worry. He could see her friends also looking on with worry as well, but not even close to rivaling his sister's current state.

Damn it, he had to think! First, he had to take control of the aura his friend couldn't rein in, but then he also had to let it out somehow since fully suppressing it wasn't an option.

But how-?!

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. Or rather, a memory from just last night.

Heh, if he ever saw that Penny girl again, he'd have to thank her for the idea/inspiration.

Closing his eyes for all of three seconds, Jaune then focused as hard as he could. Suppressing his out of control aura in any way wasn't possible, so he didn't even bother trying to do that. Instead, he envisioned a sort of figurative cooling system, sort of like what computers had. When he managed to envision it, he latched onto this image as tightly as he could.

And with a slowness that almost felt like hours to him – in reality, this only took about minute – he felt the aura bursting out of his now fully healed wounds redirect itself to the 'vent.'

As this happened, his throat began to feel odd as if something was stuck in it. And that was exactly the feeling he'd been looking for in this case.

Opening his eyes again, he directed his 'gaze' towards Peter, who he could 'see' was looking at him in equal parts wonderment and worry.

"Peter…" Jaune then began, even his own voice sounding deeper than before for the moment. "…Dodge to either side!"

He'd held back the aura welling up for the moment just to say that. And as soon as his warning was fully uttered, he couldn't hold back any longer.

Jaune opened up his mouth as wide as he could, legitimately roaring for the briefest of seconds… before it all finally came out

* * *

No one quite knew how to describe what had happened next, at least not in any way that would be believable to those who hadn't been there to see it.

One second, the blind assistant professor had groaned out a warning at Professor Port and the then the next…

Well, for lack of a better way to put it, the blond _fired from his damned mouth_ a glowing white beam that was unmistakably aura.

And how intense it was.

The beam started off fairly small, being about the width and height of the blond's opened mouth, but had quickly expanded in size until it was easily as big as an average Beowulf. The sheer power of the beam as well as its sudden appearance was such that the entire statue behind Jaune completely _shattered_ from the recoil of it, the very ground beneath the young man cracking apart, with whatever rubble that flew up into the air being disintegrated before everyone's very eyes.

Not even the students themselves were safe, for this was perhaps the most they were able to immediately glimpse within the second it had occurred in before they all got violently blown back more than a dozen yards.

The ground continued to break apart and all but disappear as the beam traveled across it.

Peter, being in the beam's general path, flung himself to the right as quickly as possible – and was just barely grazed by it, prompting him to be sent skidding an additional several yards whilst his aura dropped close to the red zone.

The beam continued onwards, reaching out to the forest within a split second and further beyond. It wasn't until it struck the top of a mountain in the distance, _vaporizing_ said top part, that it began to die down.

By this point, the students had managed to look on in time to see this happen. Even Peter, as much damage as he'd just taken, had only been able to look on without paying any mind to the pain wracking his body.

When the beam fully dissipated now, everyone turned shakily to its firer as said young man's body trembled, presumably from the strain of having to let loose such a powerful thing.

As if detecting their gazes, Jaune could only look around – at least much as possible given his blindness – and look most worried at the resulting silence. "Is everyone alright?!" he all but yelled hoarsely with concern.

And the man, despite his shaking, managed to get back up finally and flail about, clearly wondering just who he should attempt to tend to first. No one missed how he seemed to edge a bit more to where his sister currently was, said girl looking utterly gobsmacked.

…The young man didn't even look _tired_ either after what he'd just done.

And so it was in that ever continuing silence – save for Jaune's vocal concerns – that every student there came to the exact same conclusion about said blond:

This man was an absolute monster.

* * *

Earlier, Cinder had decided she needed a bit of a break from her machinations – which had mainly consisted of trying to get in contact with the White Fang and failing – and had headed out for the time being, dressed in casual clothes, to get some coffee.

Said coffee did little to fully calm her nerves, but it was helping somewhat.

Currently seated by herself at a small, nice, and most importantly quiet café, the young woman was awaiting a call. Whether it be from Adam Taurus finally returning her damned call from earlier or from Mercury to report on Roman didn't matter much to her right now, so long as she got some kind of update.

Though admittedly, she was rather hoping she got a call from Mercury. Hearing the young man whine about having checked on Roman and making sure he was being a fairly good boy would be infinitely more preferable to having to deal with Adam Taurus' anger over the morning news just an hour ago about a majority of the White Fang grunts from the Dust heist last night being in police custody.

Taking a small sip of her ever-warm coffee – aided slightly in part by the portion of the Maiden powers she'd taken – Cinder could only wonder just how had things started falling apart so fast.

While it could certainly be blamed on that enigmatic blond Roman had mentioned, Cinder liked to think there was more going on than just this blond running around. Given all of the trouble she had gone through to keep things under wraps, there was no way this man, as young as Roman had ranted about him being, could've just found out about this all on his own.

Someone had to be helping him in some manner.

That being said, it still doesn't change the fact that the blond was directly responsible for the fiasco last night. Roman had to retreat to the fallback position, most of the White Fang goons that she'd had to barter for were now locked up and going nowhere soon, and she'd have to deal once more with an irate White Fang. To think she'd actually managed to coerce them into cooperating with her initially. Now here she was having to argue tooth and nail with them to give her more people to use. After how last night's operation had failed, she'd be lucky that the White Fang don't turn their attention towards her in full.

As confident as she was in her current level of power and with Mercury and Emerald at her side, potentially fighting off small armies of angry and self-righteous Faunus wouldn't be easy or productive in any way. So she was actually going to have to hope – God, how she hated that word – that her persuasive skills would be enough to keep Adam Taurus in line.

Suddenly, her scroll began to ring. It hadn't even finished getting halfway through its first ring before she pulled it out of her pocket and answered the call. A very brief look at it before answering had indicated the call was from Mercury's. Though she would never admit it, she found herself feeling most relieved for the time being.

"So tell me, is Roman still acting like a chil-," she began to say, only to be – much to her great amazement – cut off by Mercury, who'd never dared to do such a thing before.

She'd have probably been a bit peeved by this if not for the words he spoke.

"He's dead, Cinder," was the quiet and even frightened reply.

Those three words were enough to literally freeze her solid for a moment, her grip on her coffee cup going dangerously slack. "…What?" was all she could manage to say finally when her brain processed what she had just heard.

"Roman's dead – in pieces… I think," Mercury replied. "I… I can't really be sure since… there isn't anything to suggest there may actually be other pieces of him…"

Cinder's entire body, for the first time in a long time, felt suddenly cold. Her coffee all but forgotten about now, her grip on her scroll tightened to the point of nearly cracking it. "What about that little minx of his? The White Fang members with him?"

"Little better off than he is," Mercury responded in an even quieter tone of voice than before. He sounded genuinely shaken. Considering his upbringing and naturally near empathy-deprived mental state, it told Cinder quite a lot that he sounded so… unnerved. "The factory here had always given me some bad vibes, but now… now it's like something straight out of a horror film. And I don't really want to stick around to see if there's a chance of a figurative sequel."

A moment of complete silence then passed between the two before Cinder finally sighed, a torrent of emotions detectable in the action. She resisted the urge to rub her forehead, knowing that if she did so, her mounting frustration would likely spill forth into genuine rage.

Just how had things ended up this way? There was no doubt that her grey haired right-hand man was telling the truth, which now meant that she was short two fairly uncontrollable yet valuable pawns – Roman and that Neo woman – in addition to indirectly being responsible for the deaths of at least a dozen or so White Fang members. If she wished for the Dust heists to continue, she would need to completely rearrange things to ensure this. And not to mention now having to explain to the White Fang how this had all happened…

The urge to blow off some steam only grew stronger, but she kept it at bay, especially when Mercury suddenly spoke up again.

"Cinder?"

"…Come back to our little base," Cinder then said. "The factory is a lost cause, so don't bother with thinking of grabbing anything. We'll discuss this more later once I've thought through a few things."

"Right," was Mercury's quick response before disconnecting the call, definitely more than happy to be able to head back right this instant.

With this in mind, Cinder almost envied the young man, if only for the mere fact that he, as her follower, didn't have to worry about things like negotiations and balancing resources.

…Without any doubt whatsoever, Roman's untimely death must be linked to that blond man. While there was no evidence to indicate this at all, Cinder's intuition was now screaming at her that this was the case. And her intuition had rarely been wrong thus far.

In which case, she'd made a genuine mistake in making finding out his identity a second priority. Until this particular human obstacle was tackled and dealt with for good, she could probably expect him to keep interfering in some manner or another. For despite having only foiled her smaller plans twice – she was counting Roman's death and the deaths of the others as a part of the pier incident – he'd made her adjust things considerably from how they once were.

She had no wish to see what would happen if this young man got involved a third time.

Time to make dealing with him her first priority then for the time being.

* * *

Amber stood atop Ozpin's tower, watching over the entirety of Beacon Academy with an intense gaze that didn't quite befit her still slouching posture.

Having received some genuine clothes to wear in addition to some food earlier this morning, Amber had been able to talk with her apparently new allies into letting her stretch her legs for the time being.

Having kept for now to the academy's sole tower to explore, she'd taken some measure of interest in the large structure up until she'd sensed… it again some odd minutes ago.

By the time she had then made her way to the top of the tower, she'd looked on just in time to see that powerful beam of aura, which had definitely been produced by the monster she had so keenly been aware of during her coma. However, due to where the source of the beam was and the tower's position, she'd been unable to actually see the monster, but she at least knew the general area of the academy that it was currently at.

She considered it a genuine shame that she couldn't be there right now to combat such a threatening thing. For even in her diminished state, surely she would've stood some kind of chance against it.

But she was getting ahead of herself there with that particular thought. She may be a Maiden, but she was not all-powerful, especially not as she currently was and more so if the power of that beam was a good indication of the level of power this monster could currently output. To truly stand against it and have a solid chance of winning, she'd need to recover some more first, which she was thankfully doing in spite of whatever that woman had done to her back then.

"And come to think of it, that's another person I need to keep a lookout for…" she muttered to herself. Whatever that woman in red had done, it had drained her considerably of her powers and had apparently been given to that person instead.

A sort of pseudo-Maiden running around in Remnant somewhere and with clearly bad intentions… that was a genuinely scary thought.

But as terrifying as this thought was, the continuing existence of that beast was even more terrifying. The woman in red could wait; the monster that was somehow waltzing around this school had to be dealt with as soon as she could possibly manage.

So in order to do that, she must first continue to rest, to heal, and grow strong once more.

Once her strength has returned in full or at least near full, she will go to the monster and put it down.

And that was one promise she was making right now that she intended on keeping.

* * *

 **Hope you all liked how the fight ultimately turned out. And may you also be excited for future confrontations because what you saw in this fight was just a glimpse of what was to come!**

 **Heh heh, that being said, it might be a while before the next chapter can be worked on – in addition to working on the next chapter for my original novel next, I also intend to create two little documents to accompany it. Nothing particularly serious, just additional but key info for myself to have on hand for the novel. But depending on whether or not I want to change things up as I type them, it'll either take me just one sitting to type them out or an additional day to finish them.**

 **Of course, I intend to try and finish the next novel chapter and documents as soon as humanly possible so that I can get back to working on this fic.**

 **Now until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	19. Chapter 19

Whelp, to say that this past Election Day was a very dark day in American history may very well be an understatement. Not going to lie, guys, slept pretty badly that night as I'm sure plenty of others did too.

That being said, I'm actually not too worried just yet about that idiot (for the sake of things, I'm just going to use only that one word to describe him for now).

I mean, think about it: the president is far from all-powerful, kept in check by the other 2 branches of government. Want to pass some policy/legislature? There's a strong chance it'll get vetoed, never-mind the fact that if he wants to make any changes to existing policies and legislature, there's also a good chance his actions there will get vetoed too. And hey, who knows? Maybe the idiot will realize he's in way over his head and somehow give up the presidency. Either that or get impeached.

Well that said, sorry if reading about that isn't what you're here to read in my ANs, but I just couldn't keep myself from expressing my opinion a bit on that. Hope you will understand, guys.

…

…Well, that dark moment out of the way, how about we focus on some better thoughts? Heh, in which case, just damn, guys! When I first started this fic, I never imagined ever getting more than maybe 100 or so favs/follows, let alone the (as of this written AN) 685 favs and 839 follows! Seriously, all of you guys rock! I hope I can continue to live up to all of your expectations as this fic continues.

And some other news too: saw Doctor Strange! Aside from how quickly the first 1/3rd of it went by, I loved the film! Marvel Studios never ceases to amaze me. If any of you have also watched the film, how did you feel about it? Liked it? Disliked it? I'm genuinely curious to know!

By the way, any new animes next year that have you guys excited? Because I'm looking forward to the Dies Irae anime as well as the first Heaven's Feel movie!

Ah man, next year will be a good year for anime and movies, I can already tell.

Now then… onto the chapter!

P.S. We're all in this together, everyone. Let's hang in there!

Chapter 19

To say that he had been in a bit of trouble might very well have been a huge understatement. For Jaune now knew exactly why so many students seemed to fear his pseudo professor mentor, Glynda Goodwitch.

In the immediate aftermath of his battle with Peter, the deputy headmistress had rushed out to the main avenue upon sensing the discharge of aura he'd made and oh boy, while he may not be capable of seeing facial expressions with his Aura Vision, he'd seen the shock and rage that had rolled off of her through her aura when she'd bore sight to the ruined avenue.

She didn't even have to raise her voice to make all of the students rush for their next class nor did she even have to say anything at all to get him and Peter to follow after her to the infirmary to get whatever injuries they had sustained checked out.

Perhaps because of their blood/family relations, Jeanne and by extension her team had been able to hastily tag along with them at the last minute and now here they were just standing several feet back within one room of the infirmary bearing witness to him getting so utterly chewed out by Glynda.

Never before had he so thoroughly tried to shrink back, the blonde professor standing tall before him chastising him severely in a louder tone of voice than usual. Even team JNPR could only slink back further and further with every passing moment.

The only person in the room who seemed capable of flat out _ignoring_ the verbal smackdown currently going on was one of the many school doctors that Beacon had – it was a school meant to train future huntsmen and huntresses after all, so no telling what could happen.

That being said, a very small part of Jaune that was able to resist the words of chastisement being flung at him couldn't help but worry for the doctor – a woman that appeared to sound to be in her early to mid 30s – a fair bit; going by her aura and how it shifted and highlighted her slightly panting form, it seemed as if she was feeling a bit unwell as she checked his chest and stomach for any sort of injuries, his 'coat' and shirt currently resting on one of the chairs to his side so that she could clinically run her fingers all over him.

Man, he sure hoped the doctor wasn't getting sick somehow. Or that it would potentially pass on to other members of the medical staff. That was one of the last things Beacon needed.

"-So just what do you have to say for yourself now?" Glynda finally said as her verbal barrage came to an end.

Bowing his head in genuine shame, Jaune made sure to immediately reply. "I'm sorry for getting things so out of hand. I swear this won't happen again, Glynda. And if you want, I'll try and fix up the main avenue in your place. It was my fault it got that damaged in the first place, after all."

At that, the green hues that indicated her eyes through his Aura Vision disappeared for a moment before returning, signifying a long-lasting blink of the eyes. Apparently, his words had surprised her. Considering how many time she must use her semblance to repair things, being told that must be a new experience for her.

So while his senior professor took the moment to digest what he'd said, Jaune spared a quick glance at his sister and her team – and once more worried.

His sister and her partner seemed to be a similar state as the doctor. However, Jeanne's panting was extremely lowkey and nowhere near as all-consuming, as if the girl herself wasn't sure if she was sick or not.

As for her partner, Pyrrha, though… God _damn_. Should he inform the doctor about her? If Pyrrha's aura got any wilder, the poor girl might stroke out somehow!

"Well," Glynda then began, grabbing his attention once more. She sighed as she rubbed her forehead a bit. "That's actually quite amenable of you to do…. But since my semblance is best suited for putting things back together, I will take care of the repairs."

Ah, it seems his words just now had taken the wind out of her sails. Jaune couldn't help but feel awkward now. Should he have said that in the first place then?

"O-Ok then. Again, I'm so sorry for what happened," he replied, bowing his head forward a bit. "I'll make sure this happens never again."

And weren't those big words he was spouting right now. Right before he and Peter had been taken to different rooms to be checked out for injuries, he'd gotten a good look at the man's aura right before that moment. If the way his aura had been flowing was anything to go by, his little aura discharge had only gotten the Grimm Studies professor that much more excited. Wouldn't surprise him one bit if Peter waltzed up to him later demanding a second round.

But even that would be nothing compared to what might happen should he cross the Fall Maiden's path. No doubt that the maiden wouldn't be very pleased to see him, even if she didn't even know him.

But telling Glynda that wouldn't put her at ease and would raise a lot more questions than he was willing to answer right now.

"I'll hold you to that, Jaune," Glynda said tersely, though far more kindly compared to her tirade just now. She then folded her arms across her chest and seemed to switch her gaze to the doctor still inspecting his body for injuries, which have long since healed and vanished. "Is my colleague fine?"

The doctor didn't answer.

Jaune watched Glynda's eyes narrow. "Excuse me," she said, her voice sounding calm but very deadly.

This time, the doctor finally replied. "Ah, y-yes?" she replied, moving away from Jaune.

"Is my colleague fine now?" Glynda repeated her question.

"Oh he's more than fi-! I-I mean, yes, he's in great cond-." The doctor paused. "…He's not injured. He's free to go."

Huh, how odd. If Jaune didn't know any better, it sounded like the doctor was sad to say that for some reason. Oh well, nothing to gain by dwelling on it. Grabbing his long sleeve shirt and 'coat' and slipping them on, he could've sworn he heard some sad sighs as he did this.

"In that case, Jaune," Glynda said as she headed for the door. "How about you take the rest of the day off?"

"E-Eh? Are you sure?" Jaune was more than a little surprised to hear.

"Yes. With all due respect, I think the last thing the school needs right now is you wandering around," his fellow blonde said.

In other words, given how his battle with Peter had unfolded, he was just liable to attract attention from virtually all of the students in and out of classes. After all, word tends to spread quickly and no doubt a number of students had seen his impromptu beam from the windows or something. The last thing the staff needed was having to make all of the students focus on their studies in class if he was there to otherwise occupy their attention.

Understandable, to say the least.

"Right, understood," he then said to Glynda, nodding as he did so.

And with that, the older blonde left, dragging the now very reluctant doctor with her as well.

Which meant he was now alone with his sister and her friends.

An awkward silence then settled in between them all, making Jaune inwardly sweat. Especially since it seemed like Pyrrha wasn't doing so well. Damn, he knew he should've said something to the doctor just now.

…And now he could feel their eyes on him without even having to direct his own gaze their way. Oh damn, what to say?

He should thank them, probably. After all, they'd accompanied him to see if he was alright, even if that was most likely due to his sister being their leader. And speaking of his sister, he ought to assure her for good that he was fin-.

"Err, don't you guys have another class to attend?"

Jaune wanted to smack himself after those words unconsciously left his mouth. Because wow, how did he not stop himself from voicing that particular thought?

Too late though – they were already responding in one form or another to his words. However, he paid the most attention to his sister's reaction.

"B-But, we just want to make sure you're okay!" she sputtered out.

Internally wincing, Jaune immediately reached out and patted her head. "Sorry about that… couldn't stop that particular thought from coming out." He tried to smile gently at her, but wasn't sure if he was succeeding for some reason. "But I'm okay though. Like the doctor said, injury-free!"

His sister started sputtering again, though this time the words were indecipherable for some reason.

However, her teammate, Lie Ren if Jaune remembered correctly, spoke. "…Still, you had taken some pretty nasty hits from Professor Port. Even if your aura healed the wounds, you could still be hurting."

What a good observation he had there. Jaune had to admit that the raven haired teen was right; even if aura could heal up injuries quickly, it didn't immediately nullify all of the pain it had caused originally. And that was fairly poignant in his case – while his wounds had healed, moving in certain ways still brought about slight flairs of pain, an indication of how much power Peter had put into his attacks.

But it was nothing Jaune couldn't handle. And the pain was ebbing away fully now.

"Well, that's true," he began to reply, letting go of his sister's head. "But not to worry. I'll be perfectly unhurt in just a couple more minutes."

…Perhaps he shouldn't have said that? Through his Aura Vision, he could see Ren narrow his eyes a bit in what appeared to be confusion. And the normally ultra-hyper, ultra-loud girl Nora was uncharacteristically quiet too, her own eyes mirroring Ren's current movement.

Looks like the girl was more keen on the eye than he had originally thought too…

"Anyways," he then said a little quickly. He clapped his hands together. "While it's very nice of you to have stayed with me during my check-up, it wouldn't do to let this keep you from other classes. Now if you will excuse me… there's something I forgot to do!"

Giving them what he hoped to be an apologetic expression, Jaune quickly exited the room before any member of team JNPR could say anything further.

He hadn't been lying exactly either with what he'd just said; now that he had the rest of the day to himself, there were some things he needed to confirm with his friend.

The knowledge he now wished to know could prove a bit useful after all.

* * *

Jeanne had barely had any time to react before her dear brother had left the room quicker than lightning. All she could do in the immediate aftermath of his departure was continue to sputter ineffectually before finally composing herself.

And unlike the few times she's had a chance to talk to him before, this was perhaps the very first time she's been left with such a sense of genuine wonder and worry regarding Jaune.

After all, as strong as she liked to think she knew he was, she never would've imagined him to be capable of firing a veritable laser beam. Nor had she ever imagined his strength and speed and resiliency to be at such high levels.

While her brother liked to keep the extent of his abilities a secret in the wake of his accident a few years back for some reason, she'd thought it to be due for some fairly inane reason. But now though… perhaps there was something more going on behind the scenes.

Especially since his aura seems to have healed his very well-muscled body – darn it, she didn't mean to ogle him! – nigh-immediately, something that it had never done in the more distant past.

So with this in mind, just what could be going on?

"Well," Ren suddenly said, nearly making her jump from fright. "That was a bit unnatural."

"Mhm!" Nora hummed, nodding vigorously in agreement.

Wow, so even the usually hyper Nora noticed something was up. If it'd just been her thinking such things, then Jeanne would've probably thought maybe she was overthinking, but if even Ren and Nora appeared to have noticed something amiss, then just maybe…

…Maybe her brother was hiding something? Beyond those amazing abs and pecs – damn it, not again! – just what could he be hiding though? Could it be something dangerous? If it was, just what'll happen to him?!

Well, one thing is for sure now. If she wanted to know, she was going to have to do the near-impossible and keep herself from her brother at least an arm's length until she figured out a way to approach this matter, since asking him about it likely wouldn't turn out well.

And then when she finally figures out whatever must clearly be going on, she'll confront him about it! And then she'll apologize for snooping around and he'll forgive her and wrap his slim, muscular arms around he- gah, not now fantasies! Begone!

She was certain she looked odd to her teammates right now, shaking her head so violently now… but it had to be done to rid herself temporarily of these other thoughts!

Promptly smacking herself for good measure, she then turned and addressed her friends. "Alright! I've decided on something!" she declared.

Ren quirked an eyebrow.

Nora's normally eager expression returned.

Pyrrha… well, she was still staring straight ahead for some reason. And why was her face so red?

"And that would be…?" Ren began to ask.

"My brother is clearly hiding something! And I'm getting the feeling it might be something bad!" Jeanne said right off the bat. "I don't want him to be potentially hurt, so we're gonna find out what it is, confront him about it, and then do what we can to help!"

It was a very simple little plan she'd suddenly come up with in the wake of her thinking just now, but the second she verbalized this, she found herself feeling much more confident for some reason.

But that being said, this was it! Her way of helping her brother! Her way of showing her love! Her way of helping him out! Her way of eventually achieving her fantasi – dang, not again!

* * *

In direct response to Jeanne's proclamation, Ren could only stare flatly.

He'd been having somewhat similar thoughts as well now, just without the clear brocon-ness that his leader was exhibiting.

He was now more intrigued than ever by the mystery known as Jaune Arc and now he and his teammates were going to get a chance to try and figure it out for real.

While he was a bit underwhelmed by how his leader/friend only now seemed to come around to his way of thinking – albeit unknowingly – at least they could work together as a team to hopefully figure this out.

He found himself looking forward to what may come.

* * *

In direct response to Jeanne's proclamation, Nora could only grin madly and inwardly cackle with glee.

To say she'd been completely blindsided by how the battle between Professor Port and Jaune had gone would probably be an understatement – hands down, it was the best damned way to spend class ever!

She was no fool, however. She knew that there had to be some kind of secret behind Jaune's strength; it just _felt_ far too abnormal somehow.

That being said, she was most eager now to find out and maybe learn it for herself if it was possible.

Laser beams of death, here she comes!

* * *

In direction response to Jeanne's proclamation, Pyrrha… had absolutely no reaction whatsoever.

Her mind had essentially switched off when Jaune had fired that _long_ and _massive_ beam of his, the power behind it having caused her, ah, senses to overload themselves with want.

Having then been witness to his shirtless form just moments ago hadn't helped her recover one bit.

Having perhaps only vaguely heard what had just been said, Pyrrha could only inwardly nod in response finally, if only because their future actions might lead once more to the magnificent sight known as 'shirtless Jaune' in her mind.

Her teammates did not know it yet, but she would be occupying their bathroom later tonight for a little longer than usual.

* * *

Seated in his office, Ozpin did his best to keep himself from sighing loudly.

He'd just been informed sometime earlier of the battle between Peter and Jaune and the news had left him feeling a little frazzled around the metaphorical edges.

Their battle hadn't lasted particularly long, but it had still torn up part of the main avenue in addition to shattering Beacon's proud statue and blowing off part of a _mountain_ off in the distance!

Needless to say, repairs had to ordered already, some of the damage far too much for Glynda to handle with her semblance. They'd have to order the construction of an entirely new statue, for one thing. And putting the main avenue back together would be impossible since chunks of it had been completely eradicated alongside the statue and mountain top.

As for said mountain top, well he didn't really care. It was a mountain after all and one that lied well away from Beacon Academy. This would not, however, stop environmentalists from probably pestering him over the damage done. After all, it was kind of hard to miss the beam coming directly from Beacon grounds.

Ugh, he could already hear his phone ringing. Oh wait, it was.

Ignoring the ringing phone – he could lie and say he'd been looking into some other matter later – the headmaster instead opted to distract himself from the inevitable onslaught of calls and further repair forms by dwelling on the fight itself, an odd thing to do perhaps, but helpful nonetheless.

On that note, he immediately found it most interesting that Beacon's newest hire was capable of overwhelming Peter to an extent despite the older man's obvious advantage in experience. Jaune had even been able to force the older man into gradually activating his semblance.

A good thing then that the fight had ended when it had, Ozpin silently mused, otherwise Peter might have actually gone all out. And he highly doubted the academy was durable to outlast the fallout that such a thing would've brought about.

Furthermore…

Picking up his scroll, Ozpin pulled up a video file that had captured a good portion of the fight itself. While there had been no security cameras in the area to watch the fight, apparently a student or two had managed to secretly record it to an extent before having posted it on the Beacon net forums immediately after the fight had ended.

And in this video file, Ozpin couldn't help but take note of the part near the end of it, where Jaune's entire body seemed to just spasm.

How very odd indeed. The spasming and the beam that had followed not long after. Such things were far from common even in the otherwise colorful lives of huntsmen and huntresses. Which then brings into question why exactly Jaune went through this at all. It was clear at a glance that the beam was an unintentional thing judging by the spasms beforehand.

"Just who exactly are you?" Ozpin muttered to himself as he re-watched the end of the video, the beam firing just before everything went nearly white.

From the very beginning, he'd questioned Jaune's presence. Never to the young man's face and never really aloud even to himself, for he'd trusted the blind man enough to know he meant no harm.

But now that he had a much better glimpse of the blind blond man's power, he as headmaster had to question if it was safe to let him stay here, especially if there was a good chance of him repeating that beam attack again…

And now that his thoughts were beginning to run a little wild with hypotheses, Amber's words suddenly came rearing their head within his mind.

"An unknown entity…" he mumbled as he set down his scroll. No… no way, can't be. How in the world these particular words of the Fall Maiden came to him now was unknown to him, but it couldn't be true. There was absolutely nothing to suggest a connection, no matter how unusual Jaune's power may seem to be.

But still…

Although he'd set down his scroll, the video was still on-screen, paused as Jaune had fired that aura laser of his. Ozpin stared at this image blankly, trying to rid himself of his current thoughts. But to no avail.

For while there may be no concrete connection between what Amber had told him and Jaune, his gut was now beginning to say otherwise. And his gut was not often wrong.

How odd though… in this paused video, Jaune's coat didn't seem to be moving around much despite the aura beam's recoil.

How very interesting indeed.

* * *

Emerald hadn't quite been sure what to expect today, but the young woman definitely hadn't been expecting a very rattled looking Mercury to come back from his little check-up errand.

Nor had she expected a somewhat irate yet determined Cinder to return as well roughly half an hour later.

It was now a little past noon, quickly approaching the afternoon and Emerald could only sit about awkwardly while trying to look as if she was fiddling with her scroll.

However, her focus still remained on her leader, who was in the other room having a conversation with Adam Taurus of the White Fang. And from the audible yelling she could hear even through the thick wall of said room, the bull Faunus didn't sound very happy. Cinder must have just told him about how last night's Dust theft operation went.

Grumbling to herself as she heard the irate man yell out some very choice words at Cinder, Emerald found herself wishing she could make the man shut up. But of course, this was just little more than a wish; Adam's power and skill were above her own ability to handle, even with the help of her mental illusions. And while he was inferior to Cinder as she currently was with half of the Fall Maiden's power, the once-upon-a-time cowed Faunus had been growing more of a backbone against her.

It wouldn't surprise Emerald if one day the high ranking White Fang member came barreling into this place, lusting for their blood and with a small army at his side to help him accomplish that.

But for now, he still sounded like he was on their side, albeit very, very pissed off. It took more than fifteen minutes and she had no idea what exactly Cinder was telling him, but her leader was ultimately able to calm the man down if the eventual lack of shouting was anything to go by.

It was an additional fifteen minutes before the door to the other finally opened and Cinder came out, looking more tired than Emerald ever recalled seeing her being.

"…So he was pretty upset, I take it?" Emerald said a little sardonically, inwardly hoping to lift the older woman's mood.

Cinder ran a hand through her hair. "To put it mildly, yes. For a while there, I think his rage burned hotter than any flame I've generated…"

Emerald began to chuckle a bit at that comment, but the chuckling died down immediately when Cinder's tired and annoyed expression remained unchanged in the slightest.

"So what now, ma'am?" she then decided to ask. If there was one thing she knew about Cinder, it was that it was often best to ask her what to do next; the woman liked demonstrating her control over them in one form or another… not that Emerald would ever be brave enough to say that aloud around her.

"For now, the Dust heists will be on hold," Cinder responded. She then hummed. "In fact, I'd say we could stop the heists entirely; we should have more than enough for the train, so we'll have to focus on getting the train completely ready for when the Beacon students and their professors leave Vale."

Ah and there it was, merely the first half of their plan. Load a train with entire crates filled with Dust, explode it along the hidden track leading from Mount Glenn to Vale so that when it crashes into Vale itself, entire armies worth of Grimm will come flooding into the city. With most of Beacon Academy's students and professors likely being on missions outside Vale at the planned time, the police and remaining huntsmen forces will not be able to quell the Grimm onslaught in time to prevent minimal damage.

Who knows, perhaps the Grimm would level the city entirely at the end of it all. But even if the Grimm should be repelled, the fear and chaos they would've caused would draw in the Goliaths, who would wait patiently for the second part of Cinder's plan…

But that was something they all could focus on later.

For Emerald had one thing in particular to focus on. "But won't we need the White Fang to help fully set up the train?"

"Yes, we do need them." Cinder's answer certainly had been succinct there. Thankfully, she had more to add. "And while it hadn't been easy, I was able to calm that bullheaded man down enough to continue to cooperate with us."

"How'd you do that?" Emerald couldn't help but ask.

"By reminding him once more of the power I wield, the fact that he has more to ultimately gain from helping us than not… and also by finally making him aware of our not-so-little problem." At those last few words, Cinder's eyes narrowed dangerously, glowing brightly along with the intricate yellow designs on her dress.

Emerald unconsciously gulped in worry. "You mean that blond guy?"

"Yes…" Cinder hissed. "Twice now he's gone and interfered with the plan. I'm not keen on seeing if he'll do so a third time. For now… trying to be rid of him will be one of, if not the, highest priorities for us right now."

"Hmm, I bet that'll make Torchwick happy then," Emerald remarked, looking away for a moment to put away her scroll, which she'd almost forgotten she was holding until now. But when she looked back at Cinder, it was to see the woman looking at her with a complicated expression. "W-What is it?"

"Mercury didn't tell you when he got back?" Cinder asked suddenly.

"N-No, he didn't tell me anything. He just sort of hurried back to his little room without saying a word," Emerald replied. Even when she'd made a mean-spirited joke or two upon his return, the man hadn't reacted at all.

"Roman's dead," Cinder suddenly said. "So is his little friend and the White Fang flunkies that were with him at the fall back point."

Emerald's heart skipped several beats from shock. She felt a little light headed whilst her entire body somehow ended up perfectly freezing. It took her nearly ten seconds just to unfreeze and slowly resettle her heartbeat. "…what? He's… dead?"

"Very, if what Mercury told me isn't exaggerated," Cinder muttered in response. "… I have yet another matter to attend to right now. Remain on stand-by for the time being. While I do want that blond pest dealt with, we still need to go forth with the plan so we will be infiltrating Beacon to hack the CCT."

"R-Right." It was the only word Emerald could stutter out before Cinder promptly leave, the only sound being the clicking of her heels against the cold, hard floor.

But Emerald barely heard her diminishing footsteps, too focused on what she'd just been told.

Roman was dead? Along with that Neo bitch too? No way… it just felt too unreal. While she was hardly fond of the two and made this particularly known to them, she still had some grudging respect for their skills. To now know that they're both dead… just what the hell had happened? Who could have possibly killed them? And just how did the killer or killers know where to find them? Did the killer(s?) know about where they were going in advance? If so, then how?

A multitude of other questions flooded Emerald's mind in short order, overwhelming her to a point where she began to feel dizzy in response. She shook her head and then rubbed gently at the forehead.

That had somehow been way too much for her to take in at once. And while she was able to push all of the questions to the back of her mind for now, she could still hear her own little mental voice try to whisper them to her.

Shivering despite the room being a bit on the warm side, Emerald got up and left as quickly as she could.

She needed something to take her mind off things.

* * *

It was now the afternoon, just a bit past 2, and the blackness had remained startlingly quiet up until now. Partially to allow its champion and friend to spend his free day however he wished – mainly cooped up in his room, listening to music or to the news or sleeping – until now, and partially because it had been trying to collect its own thoughts on a few matters.

And as if sensing its completion of this, Jaune suddenly spoke. "So what's up?" the blond began.

The blackness remained silent for just a moment, pondering how to go about this. It could sense in turn Jaune's own plethora of questions after this morning and thought on how to address them a bit.

 _Merely… gathering my thoughts as you would say. You have questions._

Its last three words were quite sudden considering what came before, but build-up and tact weren't quite in its repertoire of skills just yet when it came to 'speaking.'

"Er, yeah…" Jaune began, scratching his head. "…You knew how this morning was going to turn out. The fight, at least."

 _It was quite obvious that Peter Port wished to fight you._

That had certainly been true enough. While reading emotions can sometimes be a tough task, figuring out when someone or something wished to do battle was all but instinctive to the blackness.

"O-Okay, yeah. In hindsight, I should've seen that coming." Jaune had the decency to look sheepish at that. "But that's beside the point. You sensed what was going on with Peter, right? Was that his semblance?"

 _Yes, I did. It's why I told you to keep fighting. Had he gone further with it, he would have been an excellent opponent for you._

"Just what was he doing? Through my Aura Vision, I saw that he looked a little taller and a bit thinner in the waist," Jaune then remarked.

The blackness took an additional moment to think on how to words its following responses. When it sorted this out, it finally spoke again, but not before shifting its form somewhat, the 'coat' that it still was on Jaune's form shifting so that it now literally resided next to the blond.

' _Eternal Huntsman.' If semblances had genuine titles, then that is what his would be called. He was returning to how he once was._

It could see Jaune's confused expression grow even more so. "Once was?"

 _The man was using his own aura to rewind his own time, de-aging himself to his physical prime. Slowly, but I can tell that he could've sped up this process much more. Had he made himself even just a decade younger… he would've easily been on par with you prior to the fight._

The blackness watched as Jaune's eyes went wide in surprise. "I… hadn't known such a semblance could exist." His blind eyes traveled downwards in shock, only to then narrow as a thought occurred to him. "But wait… a decade younger? That's still not his prime."

 _Indeed. His physical prime would have been about 3 decades ago, given his apparent age. By my calculations, had he fully reverted to his younger self, his strength and speed would've been nine times greater than your own before the fight._

Shock so great that even the blackness could literally feel it overtook Jaune as the implications of its words immediately sank in. Considering how much of a fight Peter had given him already with the now clearly marginal increases he had made in the fight, a fight against Peter in his genuine prime would've been completely lopsided and not in Jaune's favor.

 _He would've annihilated you, Jaune. Had he gone that far, that is. But his own enjoyment of the fight had worked against him, keeping things relatively even between you two for a while._

"No kidding…" Jaune muttered. But then the blackness sensed something occur to the young man. "But what do you mean by 'prior to the fight?'"

 _Remember how your body suffered spasms earlier? Before you discharged the aura?_

Jaune nodded. It then continued.

 _The portion of your aura that gone amok earlier had been racing throughout your entire body, threatening to make it explode. However, in doing so it was literally surging through every fiber of your body – your muscles, your blood vessels, even your bones… it coursed through everything, breaking them apart and healing them over and over again at a speed so great that it left behind no visible sign of this. I was aware of this solely because of my own focus on your aura._

It could see Jaune immediately begin to connect the dots. "So then when that happened before I expended the rampant aura, it broke everything in my body… but then repaired it all-!"

 _-Thereby making you much stronger. Because of the regular intervals of tearing and healing your own body that I had already set your aura to do, the rampant aura had still carried out this function in spite of its state at the time. However, it had done so at a level of speed and efficiency that I hadn't been expecting. Hence why I said 'prior to the fight.'_

Jaune, seated on his bed, turned to face the blackness better, its current form as a coat losing its form for the moment. "So then… if that's the case, what does that mean for me now?"

 _The comparison I made between Peter's prime and yourself. Before the fight, his prime would've been nine times greater than you in physical parameters. As you are now, however, Peter's abilities in his prime would only be approximately six times greater than your own._

The blackness watched as Jaune raised his own hand up to his face, as if to inspect this for himself with his Aura Vision. "So with this power increase, will defending myself from the maiden be possible if or when she guns for me?"

 _Perhaps. Perhaps not. Pure brute might alone can only account for so much, but for now that is all you have aside from your own combat prowess. She is still recovering from what was done to her, however, so that works in your favor should the two of you meet. She still will not be an easy opponent in either case._

Jaune hummed. "Well, fighting her isn't exactly something I want to do. After all… in the end, we're all on the same side, even if the way we're going about things is a little…"

 _We do what we do because not many would willingly listen to you if they were aware of my existence._

And it spoke truth; in the distant past, the blackness had tried to make contact with humanity several times. And each time it did so, it was met with attempts to destroy it. Admittedly, back then its knowledge and level of awareness was considerably less than it was now, so that had contributed to things. But even then, it doubted that people today would willingly hear out Jaune if they ever became aware of its existence.

Yes, for now it's best to remain hidden and carry out things from behind the scenes. So far, this has worked fairly well for it and Jaune; already it had disposed of two of the pawn's major pawns – Roman and that friend of his – and with the White Fang now likely questioning its partnership with that woman, the pawn would have only a few options available to her.

And once the pawn comes to _them_ instead of going to her, it and Jaune will dispose of her. Doing so will finally draw out the so called Queen and allow Jaune to confront her, with others at his side and none the wiser as to what was truly going on.

If things went fairly well, no one would ever realize what the two of them were doing, what Jaune was and what he was becoming.

However, as it has come to learn over several millennia, plans do not always survive first contact with the enemy. Alas, the current plan was all it had for now and therefore it must stick to it.

"Still," Jaune then said, grabbing the blackness' attention. "While I know the truth and all that… it still just doesn't sit too well with me to go around everyone's back like this. I still think it wouldn't hurt to have some people in the know."

 _I can understand your desire for allies, Jaune. But thus far, the people around us have yet to inspire such a level of trust. After all, my children have unintentionally plagued humanity for millennia. The Grimm have become synonymous with 'evil' and 'danger' and therefore it would be far from easy to persuade anyone to listen should you make them aware of my existence._

"Even so, I feel like things could be done better," Jaune immediately replied. His dull blue eyes moved and locked onto the blackness. "I mean, after all, isn't that why I'm even alive? Why I am what I am? To help find a better way to our goal?"

For once, the blackness had no immediate response to what Jaune had said. For the boy was right; the blond had literally been born for this 'role' of his, once one of two 'roles' that had been deemed needed back then.

A shame that the other 'role' had since then been corrupted by the one that had been meant to fulfill it…

But now the blackness was at risk of getting off-track.

With nothing more else to say and with more to ponder, the blackness retreated into itself for the time being, leaving behind a confused Jaune as the 'coat' melded with the very darkness of his room.

"…Was it something I said?"

* * *

 **Things are slowly yet surely picking up! With Cinder now going to be at Beacon soon enough, you all can expect things to start picking up in pace for good!**

 **Heh, I just hope that I can write it all out in an enjoyable fashion for you guys. If I can pull that off, then I'm sure you all will love how things ultimately play out!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	20. Chapter 20

Sorry about my previous AN, if it upset you guys. Just hadn't been able to keep my emotions reined in at that time. Won't happen again.

That said, onto other things! How have you guys been? Any questions so far regarding this fic? Hope what I've written so far is making sense and all, ha ha ha.

And damn, hard to believe it's already chapter 20 – feels like it's too soon somehow. Other days, it feels like it's been too long, ha ha.

Well, slowly yet surely, the crux of this fic is approaching for good. Hopefully I'll be able to write it out well. Along with the reveal of some twists I've really been keeping hidden…

Well then! Onto the chapter!

Chapter 20

This must be some sort of hell. It just had to be.

And never before had Glynda ever been so convinced of such a thing to begin with.

It's been 4 days since that fight between her assistant professor and the still giddy-as-hell Grimm Studies professor and rather than have the news die down quietly, it surged with a vengeance.

Over the past several days, Beacon Academy had already been receiving students from the other combat academies across Remnant and unfortunately some of them had apparently been there when the fight had occurred. Even worse, some of these students had been among the select few – for a certain definition of 'few' – to record the fight and upload it.

Meaning that others back at the other academies in Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo had seen the incredible feats Jaune and Peter had performed. Meaning they'd also seen that powerful beam of pure aura Jaune had fired.

Which now meant that what had once been an incident she and Ozpin had hoped to keep quiet had now been blown out of proportion.

Over the past few days, she and Ozpin have had to deal with calls of all kinds from not just the other combat academies' headmasters, but also calls from just very curious people who've somehow gotten Ozpin's direct number and even some newbie reporters who were eager for a new and very good story to propel them to stardom of a sort.

Amazing how big their headaches had grown in such a short time. At least Jaune had the decency to be genuinely apologetic, though now that she's calmed down, Glynda felt he didn't have to feel so sorry; not like he could've predicted this happening.

Peter, on the other hand…

Glynda rubbed her forehead in annoyance.

The man was not only still very much _un_ apologetic about the fight – "I regret nothing!" he had said the other day – he'd already started retelling the fight in his classes! What was worse is that unlike before, students were actually listening to him now!

This in turn only perpetuated the circulation of the fight and the various new rumors popping up about the relatively unknown Jaune Arc, which in turn guaranteed that her and Ozpin's figurative if not literal headache wasn't going to be going away anytime soon.

Seriously, some days, Glynda pondered if she could get away with inflicting violence upon her shorter but older colleague. Not like the man would probably object to it if she did though; too much of a damned blood knight.

Her only solace was her classes, amazingly enough, where if anyone tried to talk to her about the fight, she'd just put them in a spar or up the intensity of the class-wide training.

Such as right now, as a matter of fact.

"Again!" she demanded, earning a scant few groans of annoyance (mainly physical agony) from the students before her in the arena.

Still continuing the same blindfold sparring she and Jaune had come up with, the blonde deputy headmistress had made it a point to continue this until the students were able to freaking walk around the locker room with a blindfold on.

So far, however, while some have certainly improved in this regard, they all still had a long way to go. This was shown particularly when Yang ended up missing her sparring partner – a very nervous Cardin – with a shot from Ember Celica and ended up hitting a student in the back who'd been on the other side of the room.

"Ms. Xaio-Long…" Glynda began to growl out, a very small petty part of her enjoying the way the woman froze up. Damn, she needs to de-stress somehow. Even she was thinking she was getting a bit too strict here. Oh well, that's a problem for later. "Remember to try and pinpoint your target a bit better next time."

"R-Right," was Yang's fairly subdued reply, the normally lively blonde not daring to talk back to Glynda.

Outwardly, Glynda thinly smiled. Inwardly, she sighed. She really needed a better way of dealing with this ever building stress. She honestly wasn't sure how much more of this she could deal with.

However, if she had to be grateful about one thing, it'd be this: at least she wasn't in Ozpin's shoes right now.

* * *

Ozpin desperately wished he was in someone else's shoes right now.

The Grimm were behaving oddly and building up in numbers outside the walls, Amber still needed to be tended to despite her protests, the Queen was still out there planning out her next moves, and Beacon itself still needed all of its usual things tended to…

…So just why was he stuck dealing with all of these damned calls?!

In the middle of some paperwork, his scroll rang for what felt to him like the millionth time today. An uncharacteristic swelling of anger welled up within him, almost prompting him to throw the damned thing as far as he could out the nearest window.

Alas, he couldn't; the aggravating number of calls aside, he still needed it to make his own calls and the like. So his scroll was granted a reprieve from his mounting wrath.

Still didn't do much to ease his increasingly overworked nerves.

Ozpin actually groaned. Just how could one fight generate so much talk of it? While he himself was intrigued by what had occurred, this was simply pushing it to a level out of this world.

What made it completely ridiculous though? The mere fact that he, not Jaune and Peter, had to deal with the fallout here with some help from Glynda.

Seriously, perhaps he ought to just redirect all calls to the two fighters, let them deal with all of this. That way he could go back to his usual duties and coffee time.

God, he missed coffee time… ever since these calls started, he's been having to hold off on his precious beverage due to how busy he'd been to even have a sip.

And now… he was really letting his mind wander.

A brief shake of the head later, he tried to focus on the real matters at hand.

Right now, things seemed to have slowed down despite the talk of the fight. There hadn't been another Dust theft as of yet nor had there been any further reports from Qrow, who should still be out in the badlands somewhere.

Given just how closely the constantly drunk huntsman tended to monitor any interesting and potentially dangerous things, could this be taken as a sign that perhaps the Queen was taking some extra time to make her next move?

A part of him certainly hoped so; it would give him and Glynda more time to prepare some other things and would also give Amber additional time to recover, a process that was going slowly yet was surely speeding up with each passing day. Just goes to show how incredible the power of a maiden can be, he supposed.

But another part of him worried all the more. In the past, the Queen's moves had been fairly regular in some form or another, so the mere fact that she was lagging was worrisome. There was no way that she'd just suddenly lost a step or two. She was gearing up for something else…

And whatever that 'something else' was, Ozpin could only hope that they would be ready for it.

* * *

Jaune felt like dying. He legitimately did.

Never before had he felt this many eyes on him as he walked the vast hallways of Beacon. Nor had he ever heard so many people whispering all at once; it was seriously throwing off his hearing due to all of the chatter around him.

It didn't help that most of this whispering was clearly concerning him, with many wondering just how he'd fired that beam while others commented on how much he had to train to get to his current level. Others even whispered to themselves about what they had to eat or do to get as tough as him.

And these were just the 'normal' comments he was picking up despite how quiet the passing students thought they were being. This simply wasn't getting into the other kinds of comments others were making, some so racy and vulgar from some of the more 'carnally fueled' students that it took all of his willpower to keep a straight face. Though he made it a point to pick up the pace just a bit.

On a related side note… just why did the aura fluctuations of said 'carnally fueled students' look so similar to the ones Pyrrha had had back then during his examination? Could they too be si-?

…Oh. _Oh_. Okay now, he could say without issue that his face was turning red really fast. And now he was going to try and suppress this newly discovered bit of knowledge for as long as he could.

And it definitely didn't help either that his friend had, in a sense, abandoned him to all of this attention. For the past 4 days, ever since his conversation with it on Peter's semblance and their current situation, his friend had been disturbingly quiet and not responding to any of his attempts to talk to it.

He could sense his friend thinking on something – their bond was strong enough to tell that much – but what that something was he didn't have the foggiest clue about. All that mattered to him though was that he could really use some kind of advice here and his friend currently wasn't available to provide any.

Especially when he could now use some advice regarding the possibility that some students – possibly including Pyrrha freaking Nikos – apparently really want to jump his bones even as he kept on walking1

Gah! He needs something to distract him then for good! Thinking on this was only going to keep bugging him now.

 _Then you should be thankful for the task you must currently tend to._

The voice of his friend appeared so suddenly within his mind that Jaune nearly leapt straight up. And then immediately, he intended to respond to said return of his friend, but he was cut off before he could even do so.

 _My apologies. In light of yours words when we spoke last, I'd been dwelling on some potential changes to our… plan, for lack of a better word._

Now that sure grabbed his attention. As near emotionless as his friend still was, he was remarkably stubborn, having intended on doing things a certain way no matter what. But it would now seem that something he'd said last time had appealed to the entity's sense of logic.

Well, he wasn't going to complain then; this actually helped take his mind off of his, ah, previous thoughts and revelation.

And his friend's words had definitely helped remind him of what it is he had to do now anyways.

Having realized that they couldn't simply give him multiple days off and tell him to hole up somewhere, after his day off a few days back, Ozpin and Glynda had put him to work doing various little odd jobs to keep him occupied and keep him away from as many students as possible. Jaune had been most thankful for this, for he might have gone stir-crazy otherwise. And he assumed the 'keep away from students' bit was just as much for his own peace of mind as it was for keeping him out of the limelight for the sake of practicality.

Alas, that was no longer to be the case since his current task required him to head the air docks that Beacon had at its disposal, where any number of older students came and went from missions via bullheads.

With the Vytal Festival Tournament slowly approaching, students from the other combat academies – Atlas, Haven, and Shade – had started to arrive here at Beacon over the course of this past week and would be expected to continue arriving over the following week or two as well.

Some of these students would arrive at the ports in downtown Vale. Others, such as the ones currently coming, would be arriving directly here at Beacon Academy.

And he, one very flustered Jaune Arc, was to greet the current bunch that was to arrive. Thankfully, this wasn't to be anything grand – just a simple meet, greet, and lead to their temporary dorms – but Jaune still couldn't help but feel a little worried all the same.

After all, according other bits of conversation he's overheard, recordings of the fight between him and Peter had been sent by some of the visiting students back to their friends in Atlas or Mistral or Vacuo and from there, news of the fight had spread amongst the students.

So in other words, he was the current sensation that everyone wanted to see and he wasn't liking this particular fact thus far. The plan originally had been for him to be watching over his sister and doing other things _discreetly_. And this was far from discreet.

Whatever potential changes his friend was considering to their admittedly simple plan, he hoped it'd account for his newfound (and most hopefully temporary) fame. It'd be pretty hard to hide from the Fall Maiden, after all, let alone discreetly prepare to take on the Queen if he's this well-known already.

…Ah, well, he'll just try and worry about all of this later. First thing first, he needs to do this student greeting thing.

And whoa, what great timing on that part – lost in his thoughts, he hadn't realized how quickly he'd arrived at his destination, the beautiful aura of many of the bullhead crew members illuminating the docks for him to see as he approached.

And right there, about a kilometer away and several hundred feet up in the sky, he see a particularly large bullhead making its way here, its form lit up by the combination of all of the incoming students' auras.

Ah, what beautiful colors that were mish-mashed together. Seriously, sometimes just looking at a person's aura could help calm him do-.

…Wait a second. Just what is that?

Narrowing his eyes to better focus his Aura Vision, Jaune's somewhat flustered expression fully disappeared and was now replaced by a very focused one.

And what he was seeing amongst the coalescence of aura was throwing him off a lot.

"That yellow-esque glow… isn't that the Fall Maiden's aura?" Jaune muttered so that only himself and his friend could hear.

… _Indeed, it is._

His friend's words were barely heard, however, for Jaune focused entirely on that glow as he tried to fully differentiate it from the rest of the auras he was seeing.

Over the past few years, his friend had done his best to educate him about the maidens and had made it a point to tell Jaune that the aura color for each maiden matched the season she was known by. A chilly ice blue for the Winter Maiden's aura, a lively green-blue for the Spring Maiden, a fierce but lovely red-gold for the Summer Maiden's heat… and a peaceful yet powerful shade of yellow for the Fall Maiden, meant to try and represent the sort of hue a leave would take on in said season.

But something was wrong here. The yellow-ish color and the 'feel' that this aura was giving off looked corrupted, mixed together with another's aura in a very unnatural way. It honestly almost hurt to even look at it for too long.

Therefore, Jaune could only blink and look away momentarily as the bullhead continued to approach.

 _This is somewhat unexpected; the pawn comes here of her own will._

Jaune could only hum dryly in acknowledgement of his friend's statement. He'd come to the same conclusion too.

Through his friend, he'd been somewhat aware of the Fall Maiden's power having been reduced, a portion of it stolen. But never would he have thought said thief to come here of all places and times.

…Oh damn and the Fall Maiden was up and walking around Beacon too! If the two of them ended up bumping into one another… just what to do? Let them fight? That'd just potentially be counterproductive, should the thief win. But then if that happened, there was also a chance that the Fall Maiden would take care of the thief for them… but that wouldn't do much good if said thief had a back-up plan of sorts…

Jaune's head was starting to hurt from all of the thinking, a myriad of new possibilities and worries popping up in his mind.

Through their connection, he could sense once more his friend thinking as well, no doubt pondering the same possible scenarios he'd been dwelling on as well.

As the bullhead continued its approach and neared by the second, Jaune could only hope now that his friend would be able to think of a solution to this new problem.

But he was already getting the distinct feeling that whatever his friend thinks up, it wouldn't really be resolving this new situation peacefully.

* * *

Within the crowded confines of the bullhead, Cinder inwardly huffed in annoyance. The students around her being a mix of students from Haven and from Shade – both groups had to take the same connecting flight here – they'd wasted no time in engaging in mindless chatter about one thing or another and it was slowly beginning to drive her a little insane.

A brief glance to either side of her also informed her that Emerald and Mercury were feeling the same way too, the former more so than the latter.

But the three of them were just going to have to grin and bear it for a little while longer; after all, having gotten their Haven student disguises so last minute hadn't been easy nor had it been easy to board this flight stealthily as well. Thankfully, no one had questioned their presence here, the casually dressed students from Shade having no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary and the students from Haven apparently just dismissing the three as the type of students to naturally be 'under the radar.'

If nothing else, Cinder would admit to being grateful for that. Saved her the extra trouble of having to explain her group's presence amongst their now fellow students.

Admittedly, coming to Beacon now of all times hadn't actually been a part of her plan originally – she'd intended to pop up here on next week's flight – but her professional criminal contact had finished up the preparations she desired for this much sooner than expected and had taken the liberty of setting her up for this flight without her asking.

Under other circumstances, she'd have been quite angry over this, but the man had done such a good job making their student records that she was willing to overlook the lack of permission and last-minute packing. Though the trivial chatter all around her was making her reconsider that.

Furthermore it grated her nerves considerably to know just how much her plan had been derailed the past several weeks now. Had things gone exactly as she'd originally intended, then Roman would've obtained several tons of Dust and would be stealing more still for the train in addition her having had more time to prepare some other things prior to this trip.

Instead, Roman and his cohort were dead, the operation at the pier had resulted in zero Dust gain, and she had the White Fang breathing down her neck no matter how much she placated them. Never mind her current situation once again.

Suppressing a sigh, Cinder supposed she shouldn't be too upset just yet, however. Once she had time, she'll be looking further into that blond haired pest that had derailed her plan like this and deal with him personally. For now, however, she, Emerald, and Mercury will prepare to infiltrate and hack the CCT tower and look for the Fall Maiden.

And regarding the latter… well, that honestly shouldn't be too much trouble. Going by what she's learned about Ozpin from her mentor, the man likely hid the Fall Maiden somewhere that no student or other faculty member would ever even go to, which eliminates a vast portion of the academy to explore. And with the Fall Maiden likely still in a coma, killing her off to obtain the rest of her power should be a breeze once she's been found.

"Finally!" Emerald cried out suddenly, grabbing Cinder's attention.

Ah, it would appear that their bullhead had finally arrived at their destination. While she wasn't as childish as her two cohorts, like Emerald had just said: finally!

She allowed herself a hum of contentment when the bullhead door finally opened and the students began to exit.

She and her two 'teammates' were some of the last to disembark the bullhead and Cinder couldn't help but smile as she did so, the possibility of the next phase of plan occurring without a hitch causing her to begin smiling.

Said smile went and died a horrible death just as Emerald and Mercury both actually gasped from beside her.

Being that they were 'visiting students,' it was only natural to have someone come and greet them all, usually one of the professors.

That being said, Cinder could only stare, genuinely gobsmacked, at who this group's greeter was.

"H-Hello there!" spoke the blond man that had caused her so much trouble, his black coat flapping ever so gently with the breeze. "My name's Jaune Arc. On behalf of all of the staff and students here… welcome to Beacon!"

* * *

Amber, having been in the midst of a rather hefty and early lunch, froze mid-bite.

A very familiar sensation had just overwhelmed her senses and its familiarity had been what caused her full-body freeze just now.

How could it not when it was her _own Fall Maiden power_ that she was now sensing?

"It's her…" she muttered, a mixture of anger and slight fear tinging her voice. She gripped her fork tightly, bending it a bit.

There was no doubt about it. The woman who had ambushed her back then, who had used that odd glove to siphon some of her power… that woman had now just arrived at this academy.

Normally, she was a very kind if paranoid and lonely woman, her travels having left her somewhat longing for some measure of good company. But right this moment, Amber couldn't help but grin almost predatorily.

That monster and that woman here at the same time? Oh, as much of a threat as both of them posed, it almost sounded too good to be true.

Because so long as she's able to build her strength back up a bit more, she'll be able to dispose of them both at the same time.

She returned to her eating with a renewed vigor, an uncharacteristic eagerness welling up within her as she felt her strength continue to slowly restore itself.

* * *

The blackness remained quiet as it watched and listened in its current form as Jaune's coat.

Currently, its blond champion was leading the newly arrived students to what was to be their dorms for the duration of their stay here. Paying no mind to the various students staring at Jaune, his newfound fame having clearly reached them prior to today, the blackness instead focused on the woman who had stolen some of the Fall Maiden's power for her own.

And judging by the two that stayed close beside her, it could only assume that they were the woman's right-hand men. The pawns to the pawn, just like what Roman and that girl had been.

Not that it would make much of a difference, having them beside her. While it can certainly sense and ascertain their overall strength and threat level, the blackness had no doubt that Jaune would triumph over those two if it came to it.

The main pawn herself, however… well, in all honesty, it hadn't quite expected her aura to feel this strong. Despite having only managed to siphon a portion of the Fall Maiden's power and aura, this woman was already at a comparable level to her currently diminished state, meaning that in terms of pure power alone she could press Jaune significantly in a fight.

At this particular thought, the blackness then proceeded to feel an entirely new emotion, if only marginally: dissatisfaction.

While strong opponents were desirable for Jaune to face, so that his own strength of body may continue to grow, having what amounted to two Fall Maidens running around him was actually somewhat worrisome. One alone – that is to say, the real Fall Maiden – would've sufficed as an excellent challenge for the blond champion, especially once her strength recovered. But a second one? One that undoubtedly did what she did to help her Queen? This may be an issue.

This wasn't even counting the fact that there was always a chance of this pawn coming into contact with the Fall Maiden and them fighting it out with reckless abandon. Which would certainly put this academy at risk and with it that silver eyed girl – Ruby – and Jaune's sister, the 'beacon.'

That aside, it supposed it should be… thankful? Was that the correct word to use? Regardless of the correct word, the blackness was pleased to know that as a sort of pseudo-maiden, this pawn was incapable of sensing it hidden on Jaune's body. Nor did it seem like she could sense Jaune's own unique nature too, though such a thing was likely hidden by its own presence.

After all, she'd stolen that power from the Fall Maiden, so it was only natural that she lacked the other traits that the actual maidens had gained from the 'old man' as he's come to be known. The 'innate connection' between the old man and it, to be more precise.

…Now that it thinks of said individual, the blackness had to wonder about that old man's legacy – the maidens. Long, long ago it and its other half had managed to artificially make said 'old man' and had genuinely hoped to have him act as their champion… their Apostle if a better word had to be used. Instead, the old man had lived his life normally until he discovered the truth upon meeting them… and had rebelled tenaciously against them.

The truth had left him bitter… until those four girls came along and through their friendship, healed that old man's heart. In turn, he'd gone on to split his very _life force_ and by extension his power among the four. This had been something that had honestly been somewhat predicted on its part and it had originally hoped back then that the maidens would take up the old man's place.

Instead, it would seem that when he'd given them his life force and power, he'd also somehow passed on his innate connection to it and his hatred of it by proxy. Which would certainly explain why in due time, the Fall Maiden would seek it out – or rather Jaune by unknown association – and attempt to destroy it.

A shame, really, that things had ended up turning out this way. But the blackness was more than content with its current champion, who was definitely far more suited for the old man's 'role' as an Apostle anyway. A further shame that the blond hadn't been born much earlier, before things could have progressed to this point.

The only downside to this whole situation was Jaune's current level of development regarding his body. It still wasn't quite tough enough for what was to inevitably come and that in turn would be needed to combat and defeat the Queen for good before Jaune's real role could begin.

But before it could dwell on further on that distant future, the blackness supposed that it would be far more ideal to focus on this current situation first.

Well, while it certainly was a surprise that the Queen's current top pawn was here along with the potential fallout that could result from this, at least it saved it and Jaune the trouble of having to go out and hunt her down themselves.

But it would be a while before it could have Jaune fight and dispose of her…. Or do so itself, if it was absolutely necessary. For there was no telling what this pawn and her lackeys had to gain by coming here in the first place. Therefore, it was key to observe her first before a strategy could be formulated.

Once it has figured out what it is she has planned for Beacon and the potential ramifications of killing her, only then will it request Jaune to deal with her.

Assuming the Fall Maiden doesn't get involved first, somehow. And it had the distinct feeling that the woman's involvement was inevitable.

In which case, it could only wonder now…

If it'd be possible to get the Fall Maiden on their side, after all.

* * *

 **A noticeably shorter chapter than usual. Hope you don't mind this. And don't worry, the next chapter will be about the usual length as will future chapters.**

 **Heh, the stage for the next series of events had now more or less been set as far as the characters go, so I hope you all will look forward to the coming battles and revelations that I have yet to even hint at!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	21. Chapter 21

Well damn, the boss rush of Blazblue Central Fiction is hard! Been playing Grimm of Abyss mode for quite some time and even after this long, it feels like I'll never finish up to depth 32 in the boss rush; the characters are stupidly strong and smart for one of my skill level. No choice but to just keep practicing, I suppose.

That said, if any of you have the game, any idea if you know if the Stat Boost skill has a level Max? If so, any surefire of getting it or do I just have to be really damn lucky? I figure if pure skill on my part won't help for the time being, then boosting my stats as much as possible is the only way to go for now.

Heh, well that aside, how are you all liking RWBY vol. 4 right now? Certainly a lot of interesting new plot twists being unveiled, though for now they're simply raising a lot more questions than ever before. Here's to hoping they get answered by the end of this volume, ha ha ha.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 21

Emerald had been observing one Jaune Arc for almost the entirety of class now and she still wasn't quite sure what to make of the blind young man.

It's been just two days since she, Mercury and Cinder had arrived here at Beacon and in that time the three of them along with all of the other visiting students had been warmly welcome to Beacon's classes as according to their own years.

And in these very brief two days, she and Mercury could already claim to be annoyed by the ensuing schoolwork, not that they'd ever complain much to Cinder about it.

Especially not when, the risks of being here aside, they were provided the opportunity to observe their surprisingly young (assistant) professor up close.

Heh, it was hard to believe even now that the one who'd interrupted their plans so much was here of all places. At least it would save Cinder the trouble of having to find out his identity now, Emerald silently reasoned.

Now if only she was able to actually sit back and observe the man quietly instead of having to take part in this stupid exercise of his!

Seriously, sparring with blindfolds on?! Originally with their weapons and now without them due to the number of accidental strikes?! How did he come up with this idea?!

Thankfully, the class had been provided a brief reprieve in the form of a five minute long break right now allowing her and the other students time to remove their blindfolds.

And now sitting cross legged on the ground with one equally annoyed Mercury next to her, Emerald focused as subtly as possible on Jaune Arc as he appeared to be in the midst of giving a few students some pointers after observing their particular spar.

She had no idea how he was able to do that though – he was blind, after all, right?

Well, that aside… she could only look upon him, taking note of his apparent personality and simply not seeing how he could have caused Cinder this much grief. He was just too nice and sort of nervous and kind of happy-go-lucky to be any sort of real threat.

His body, however, told a bit of a different story.

When he'd greeted their arriving group two days back, he'd been wearing a pitch black coat that hardly flattered his physique. But yesterday and today he was going without said coat, presumably because it was just a tad bit warmer than usual. And while the long sleeve black shirt he wore underneath was quite baggy, every now and then he'd stretch or in general move in such a way that the shirt would end up suddenly looking snug against his upper back, chest, and arms, showing off slim yet still fairly large and powerful muscles that could only have been achieved through intense training and battle.

And no, she wasn't checking him out, despite how Mercury had immediately teased her about this yesterday when she'd initially pointed it out.

Well, okay… maybe she was just admiring his form a little bit. Not too hard to admire a physique like that, after all; just looking around briefly was enough to tell her that a number of girls were checking him out behind his back.

But that being said, the teal haired girl still wasn't sure how to categorize this guy at all. His personality thus far indicated a rather mild mannered and otherwise unassuming man. But his body was that of a warrior. The only real link between these two contrasting things was the surprising amount of combat knowledge he seemed to possess as was evidenced by what pointers he'd given out thus far.

Not to mention that video…

At this point, Emerald couldn't help but shiver just a little bit, only enough for Mercury to really notice and mercifully, the guy didn't mock her for it.

In the time not long after being shown to their rooms, Cinder had tasked her and Mercury with going about and making contact with the other students, build up trust and reliability so that it'll be all the easier to blend in and not be detected by the ones they had to genuinely worry about. And during this time, she and Mercury had asked about Jaune, having noticed how a lot of people seemed to be talking about him.

That had been when they were shown the video, which they had later shown Cinder.

Needless to say, all three of them had been shocked by how the fight between Jaune and the Grimm Studies professor had ended up turning out. It had been this video, more than anything else, that had convinced them of Jaune's power and subsequently, his threat level to the plan.

…Which still didn't make it easy to try reconciling his combat prowess with how he acts off the battlefield.

But then, she nor Mercury were meant to treat him as a sort of psychological case-study – they were watching him with the hopes of a potential slip up, anything and everything that could be used against him. A potential weak spot on his body, a small opening in his fighting style, a psychological issue or personality trait that they could manipulate to their own benefit… that is what she and Mercury were meant to try and find.

And so far, Emerald could say that the two of them were having no luck. Or at least, she didn't appear to be having any luck.

So with just a smidgen of hope within her, she turned to Mercury, wondering if perhaps he was seeing something that she was missing. After all, she was just a thief when it came down to it; he was the one raised by an actual assassin.

But when she turned, it was only to see an expression just as lost as her own promptly looking back at her.

Emerald grimaced. That had been expected, but still hadn't been what she wanted to see.

"Okay, break time is done! Time to get back at it!" Jaune then said, clapping his hands once to get everyone's attention prior to this.

Inwardly groaning, she and Mercury slowly stood up along with everyone else.

And if there was one other thing she wasn't liking about this thus far… it was having to spar with Mercury of all people while blindfolded.

Seriously, those prosthetic legs of his _hurt_.

* * *

Cinder, meanwhile, wasn't in any class and was instead taking her sweet time traversing Beacon's grounds.

Having easily lied and claimed to feeling ill due to a combination of 'her long travel here,' and 'having to adapt to Vale's particular climate', Cinder had been able to worm her way out of class and rather than head to the infirmary like the professor had believed she'd do, she was intending on using this time to explore as much of the academy as possible, get a feel for where their target may be at.

While dealing with the CCT was the current main objective, Cinder also wished to know the location of the Fall Maiden as soon as possible, that way she may go and kill the comatose woman and obtain the entirety of her power.

All for the sake of her mentor's grand plan… whatever that may be.

Just as she kept many of own underlings out of the loop on certain things, she too was being kept out of the loop on a number of things her own mentor had in mind. Oh well, contrary to what some would probably think of her, this didn't bother her too much; she's more than happy to help tear this world apart for the sake of a better one.

But alas, to accomplish that, making sure the Fall Maiden dies and passes her power onto her was key. As for the other maidens… well, that was something to worry about in the future.

So while it did somewhat worry her to leave the observation of that blond punk up to Emerald and Mercury for now, it was something Cinder was just going to have to live with for now.

At any rate, finding the location of the Fall Maiden shouldn't be too hard, if only in theory. Despite the size of the academy, there were only so many places that Ozpin could conceal the comatose woman without risk.

Therefore, she could immediately dismiss any potential location that was near classrooms or other spots that students and faculty favor.

"Which likely means…" she began to mutter.

She peered out a window nearby and her slowly smoldering gaze focused on the tower not so far off from where she currently was at.

"The headmaster's tower…" she finished saying, a small smile making an appearance on her face.

Surely, that must be where her target was at. After all, the only people that could truly come and go from that tower with impunity would be the headmaster himself as well as his deputy headmistress.

Well, on the off-chance that the Fall Maiden wasn't in there somewhere probably didn't matter too much either. For at one point or another, that tower must be brought down as well for the sake of the plan.

But in any case, just how to enter such a place? No doubt the tower will be well-protected regardless of whether or not the maiden is being kept hidden there… so sneaking in wouldn't be easy and going in guns blazing would also not be a good thing to do.

For she knew that while she was strong, the headmaster was likely much stronger, strong enough to require a maiden to actually defeat. Which only made her goal of fully obtaining the Fall Maiden's power that much more important since taking Ozpin out of the picture was also something that her mentor would very much like to see happen.

Her mind whirring like a well-oiled machine now, Cinder slowly began to walk away, already trying to scheme about all the ways she could finally turn things to her favor.

A pity, however, that she didn't seem to realize she wasn't the only one prowling the halls.

* * *

From its place among the shadows, the blackness watched as silently as it usually did as its target walked away from the window, the one known as Cinder smiling ever so slightly. If the blackness had to take some kind of guess, it would say that perhaps the pawn was finally beginning to think of a way to turn this situation to her advantage finally.

However, it highly doubted that things would go anywhere near whatever the woman may be planning.

Over the past 2 days, it had detached itself from Jaune under the guise of its champion saying that the weather had become a little too warm to be wearing a coat, which certainly made the slight spike in temperature a convenient thing to have happen. And the blackness had subsequently been using its time away from its Apostle to closely observe the one called Cinder and her two lackeys – Emerald and Mercury, their names appeared to be – from within the confines of shadows and darkness, which for all intents and purposes were but offshoots of itself anyways.

Over these past 2 days, it had watched them as they went to classes under the guise of students. It had watched them eat in the cafeteria. It had watched them – mainly Emerald and Mercury – trade banter as they walked the halls. It had watched them simultaneously unwind from dealing with classes and plan their little plans regarding their time here in Beacon.

It had even watched them take their turns in the shower. And it had to say that in spite of its own lack of emotion, it had to appreciate the singing voice Mercury had.

That aside, in this brief yet around-the-clock observation it had put them under, the blackness had come to learn a fair bit about the trio.

For one thing, all three of them definitely weren't capable of sensing it even when it had followed them within the confines of their own shadows, such as in the shower due to the lack of other shadows in the bathroom. For another thing, their 'grand plan' had hit a number of speedbumps, if not outright bordering on the verge of collapsing; with Roman Torchwick and his little helper dead, they were bereft of a way to gather more Dust for this train of theirs and the White Fang was becoming increasingly difficult to keep in line. Furthermore, based on some words spoken quietly between the pawn's pawns, it seemed they didn't have a real plan on dealing with Jaune, who had been the one to sabotage their plan at the more recent points.

Very interesting, to say the least, though the blackness certainly wasn't capable of feeling elated at learning all of this. It could certainly imagine Jaune feeling happy once it finally returned and reported its findings. Perhaps it would even soothe the young man's increasingly frazzled nerves in the wake of his newfound (in)famous and now well-known reputation.

However, while it could be reasoned that it had gathered enough information, the blackness still stalked after Cinder with the intent of finding out more. After all, just now the woman was clearly beginning to plan out something regarding that tower of the headmaster's. No doubt, she wished to kill the Fall Maiden and take her power for good.

A shame then for her that the maiden was no longer comatose. The blackness had the distinct impression that this pawn would be in for quite the surprise whenever she did find the maiden.

But there was more to this than just finding out her plan for the tower; just late last night, she had spoken very briefly and vaguely to her own pawns about something called the CCT. If the blackness remembered things correctly, the CCT was in charge of electronic communications across vast distances. Surely this woman and her two pawns aimed to take it out, which would make sense given that disabling communications is a standard warfare tactic…

…Yet it was one that it nor Jaune could not ultimately allow.

While it highly doubted the three of them could truly take down Jaune – another thing that they clearly intended to do – if they could at least succeed in taking out the CCT, then that would keep vast portions of humanity from communicating with one another over exceptionally long distances.

That wouldn't do, especially since contact of some kind between the kingdoms would be most necessary for the not so distant future.

But what to do about this? Cinder hadn't elaborated much on their plan regarding the CCT last night, having no doubt already gone over it many times prior to ever coming to Beacon, and now that she and her two lackeys were posing as students, outright disposing of them would draw attention from other students and especially the faculty since three students from another kingdom – or so says their falsified records – going missing or turning up dead would certainly make for an attention-grabbing incident. More so if or when it was discovered that they weren't actually students from Haven, should such a scenario ever come to pass.

This meant that it couldn't simply have Jaune directly confront and kill them nor could it do so itself since that would draw the maiden's attention and possibly send her on a warpath unknowingly towards its champion.

…

…Unless the maiden's warpath could be guided towards someone else instead.

The blackness, struck by what humans would call a flash of inspiration, now continued to follow after Cinder with something akin to a renewed energy, as it now began to dwell on a countermeasure for this pawn.

Now how best to get the Fall Maiden to come to Cinder, it wondered, and when to do so… the possibilities now seemed endless.

Now if this forming plan does work, all that would be left would be the pawn's two pawns… and then the White Fang in full, just to play things safe.

And then, once Jaune grows more in bodily strength, the two of them could finally think of directly confronting the so-called Queen.

* * *

"Uhm… how can I help you?" spoke one Jaune Arc, who was currently looking a little confused for some reason.

Mercury couldn't help but eat this up for some reason, finding an ever so tiny amount of satisfaction in being able to confuse the young blond before him. Call it pettiness on his part or whatever, but after the sights he'd seen in that factory, being able to return to something like this felt very nice. It allowed him to focus on other things.

Like potentially finding out any faults in this Jaune guy's body or mentality.

"Ah, nothing much really," Mercury replied as casually as possible. "I was just wondering if you could give me a few pointers about something."

All throughout combat class today, he and Emerald had futilely tried to observe him from afar for anything that could be used against him and had only succeeded in hitting each other or others several times over thanks to that stupid blindfold exercise that had been going on.

Seeing as dealing with this guy was something that should – in theory, so to speak – be seen to as soon as possible, Mercury had decided to take a different approach from what Cinder had recommended and had instead gone up to the (assistant) professor after class to ask him some random questions.

Which is exactly what he was doing now.

That being said, he will admit albeit silently, that he was feeling a little nervous in spite of his own innate smugness. Something about this blond guy's blind eyes… it just set off something in him that couldn't quite be identified.

If the assassin had to say anything about this, it was almost as if the blond man wasn't blind at all, the way his dull blue eyes focused so keenly on him making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He watched then as calmly as possible – with a not so calm Emerald at his side – as Jaune then blinked a few times. Then the blond craned his head to right, the action unintentionally causing his neck to crack a bit. At least, Mercury sure hoped it was unintentional because it honestly kind of put him on edge a little bit and he couldn't imagine how well he'd hold up to this guy actually trying to intimidate him.

He'd seen that video after all and he'd rather not find out if this guy could fire aura beams at will, thank you very much.

"On kicking? I don't think I can… I mean, you already have pretty good form on that front," Jaune then said.

Mercury's eyes narrowed just a little bit. How could he make a comment like that? It only further made him question this guy's blindness. "Ah, no… the blindfold thing."

"Oh! That! Right…" Jaune rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Once more, Mercury and Emerald shared a look with one another as this happened. Was this guy for real? "Well, there's honestly not much I can tell you there either, I think…"

"Really? But surely you can give us some advice. I mean, how else do you get around?" Emerald now chipped in.

Mercury nodded in agreement. Smart thinking on the girl's part, no matter how much she may annoy him sometimes. By so suddenly calling out his blindness even if indirectly, it puts this blond enigmatic on the spot. Maybe he might slip up on something.

"Err, well when you put it that way…" Jaune's dull blue eyes closed as he folded his arms across his chest. "Well, in my case, my other senses simply sharpened naturally since I had to focus much more on them than before to get around. So I'm afraid the only advice I could really give is try to focus your all on at least one sense that isn't sight and go from there."

Mercury inwardly grunted. Simple advice for not quite a simple thing. Easier said than done, really. Oh well, he'll make do somehow. Kind of amazing though how of all the things his asshole dad taught him, relying much more on his other senses had never really been one of them.

A shame that this guy didn't seem to give anything away though.

"I see," Mercury then said. "Well thanks anyways, prof-."

"O-Oh, right!" Jaune suddenly said, interrupting him. "S-Sorry to cut you off, but just one quick thing on my part."

Jaune's dull blue eyes focused on Mercury, making the boy inwardly once more.

But it was the young man's next several words that made the grey haired man's blood run arctic cold.

"You might want to adjust the gears in the ankle portion of your prosthetic legs. They seemed a little stressed earlier."

The resulting silence was so great that a pin drop would've been deafening. All Mercury could do was stare at the man with a newfound level of interest, suspicion, and even horror. He heard a breath from beside hitch up as well for a brief second, telling him that Emerald had been just as shocked as him to hear what the professor had just said.

"…You could even pick up that little amount of sound? Your hearing must be pretty sharp," Mercury eventually managed to comment in as casual a tone as possible.

"…O-Oh, it's nothing too special," Jaune said just a little too quickly. "It's just something that I got really good at over the years."

His left eyebrow twitched almost microscopically as he said that, his dull blue eyes opening just a centimeter or so more than they were before.

Mercury right then and there knew that the professor was lying.

"Well, I'll make sure to check that out later then. But first, our other teammate beckons. She isn't feeling too well, after all," Mercury said as he turned around, Emerald immediately following suit. "See ya around, teach!"

"Right, until then!" Jaune said.

Mercury and Emerald then proceeded to walk on without turning back around at the blond man, walking at a normal pace until they had fully exited the arena.

Only then did their pace become a bit more rushed, a little more filled with worry. And with very good reason.

"Merc…" Emerald began.

But she didn't even need to finish that thought at all. Mercury could only nod, his face appearing remarkably grim. "Oh yeah…"

The professor had lied just now. And while that was very little to go of off, he and his cohort immediately leapt to one conclusion:

Somehow, that son of a bitch was able to _see_.

* * *

"Just what was that all about?" Pyrrha asked, her green eyes narrowing in confusion.

"Don't know…" was Jeanne's equally confused reply.

"Can we please go now?" muttered a tired Ren.

"Not now, Renny! First we need to figure out what just happened!" half-whispered an excited Nora who was all but using Ren as a standing platform.

Jeanne paid the following tired mutterings of Ren little mind as she tried to process what exactly had happened.

Ever since the fight between her brother and Professor Port, she had made good on her promise to herself to try and figure out what was going on, having immediately tasked herself and her team with tailing Jaune as much as humanly possible outside of class.

And this was no different today.

When combat class had ended and he'd ended up staying behind to talk to those two Haven students just now, Jeanne had immediately grabbed her friends and had hidden themselves on the opposite side of the arena, where Jaune's back had been facing. Thankfully, on this end of the arena lied another door to lead to a convenient locker room. It was here that they had hid and had pressed their ears against the door to listen.

And while the conversation her brother had been having with the two had been pretty normal, something about their tones at the end there seemed off somehow.

"But what could it be?!" she muttered, not for the first time feeling frustrated. So far, their tailing of Jaune had yielded little success.

"Maybe they were talking in code!" Nora offered her opinion excitedly.

"Nora… just how would they have done that?" spoke a fatigued Ren. Wow, Jeanne sure hoped he got some rest tonight; he looked so much like a zombie right now. "They were just talking about the blindfold exercise."

"Mhm. Would be pretty hard to add a code into that," Pyrrha added, apparently taking Nora's idea seriously.

"Muuuhhhh….! This is driving me nuts!" Jeanne said, a little louder than before.

"Jeanne, he might hear us!" Pyrrha said with a bit of worry, Jeanne noted. And something else that she couldn't really identify. But Jeanne did notice that her partner was blushing again a little bit. And fidgeting. Maybe she had to go to the bathroom?

In any case, though, the blond leader at least had the decency to blush. Being caught by her brother certainly wouldn't do, to be sure. It would put an end to her 'follow him until we find out his secret!' plan and just how else would she be able to ultimately help him since he won't tell her what's going on?

"R-Right! Whelp, time to leave!" she then declared, pointing skywards. "Nora! Check if the coast is clear!"

"Aye, aye! Let's take a pea- gah!" Nora began, only to actually shriek upon opening the door just a crack.

Jeanne, being close enough to Nora when this happened, equally screamed when she saw her brother's dull blue eyes peering at them through the crack in the door.

"Jeanne? Just what are you and your team doing?" he asked, his voice tinged not with annoyance or anything of the sort, but merely curiosity.

Having not expected this sudden change in the situation, Jeanne's mind failed in providing her an adequate answer, so all that left her mouth was: "U-Uh, Uh, Uhm, Uh, Uhm, err-!"

"W-We'd simply been taking our time changing back into our uniforms is all," Ren managed to answer, the boy stuttering only slightly. Apparently, the sudden appearance of Jaune who now fully opened the door had managed to startle the normally tired boy too. "We were quite worn down from today's practice session."

"Ah," Pyrrha now began. "And that was when we overheard you talking to those two students just now. We didn't want to interrupt the conversation, so we just… sort of stayed behind?"

Jeanne had never felt so utterly grateful to her friends. Even though her partner had sort of lost steam there at the end, Pyrrha and Ren had both managed to give a reply in her stead.

"Oh, okay. It just sort of began worrying me when I noticed just how long you've been in here," Jaune said, smiling a little.

"…Huh?" Jeanne couldn't help but say.

"Sir, did you know we were in here from the start?" Ren suddenly asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah. I noticed you guys walk in here with the rest of the students, but when I never noticed you four leaving, I started getting a little worried," was Jaune's reply.

"…Oh," was all Jeanne could say in response. So much for being sneaky today.

"Well, we should be going now that your conversation is done," spoke Pyrrha with disarming smile. "I'm sure your advice will help them out greatly!"

Jaune chuckled a little. "I sure hope so, because I honestly felt otherwise about that." He moved aside so that they all could leave. "Well, off you go, I guess."

"A-Ah, yep!" Jeanne laughed awkwardly at that. "I'll see you later then, okay Jaune?"

"Sure."

Embarrassed at having been caught and at how the situation had ultimately turned out, Jeanne made no attempt to disguise her rushing out of the room, her teammates following behind her with awkward expressions on their faces, even Nora.

The leader of team JNPR couldn't help but shed comical tears.

One day, she swears, one day she'll find out what her brother's secret is! And then she'll help him with whatever troubles he has, whether he likes it or not!

* * *

Jaune wasn't quite sure to make of what had just happened, not with those two 'Haven students' nor with his sister and her team just now.

But as he now took his time exiting the combat arena, he found himself focusing on those two students from just a moment or so ago much more than on his sister's odd antics just now.

Those two had been walking alongside that pseudo-maiden when they'd arrived 2 days ago. They were also the woman's 'teammates' as well, meaning they were in actuality the pseudo-maiden's pawns.

…Which in turn meant that they'd be gunning for him in one form or another, he supposed.

And it was at this thought that his face scrunched up with marginal worry. In immediate hindsight, he probably shouldn't have commented on that guy's robotic legs or whatever they were exactly, but he hadn't quite been able to keep the concern for the genuinely grinding gears at bay. And he knew that the guy and girl knew that he had lied at the end there.

"So they know that I can 'see' in a way…" he muttered to himself.

There was no doubt that they'd go and tell that pseudo-maiden this particular detail right now. How exactly that would then come to bite him in the ass, he couldn't fathom, but he knew that it was going to happen somehow.

With that in mind now, he had to wonder just how well his friend's observation of the pseudo-maiden was going. He sure hoped his friend would finally give him an update soon now that he had this current issue to worry about.

But even if his friend came back tonight and told him whatever he had found out… just how best to proceed? With the spotlight still on him thanks to that video his fight with Peter, he couldn't exactly do much during the day with nearly everyone watching him for one reason or another. Not to mention there was still the Fall Maiden prowling about the campus now, thankfully nowhere near him for the time being.

Though knowing his luck, that was probably going to change in due time…

Jaune sighed, suddenly feeling tired. His newfound fame, the Fall Maiden, this pseudo-maiden and her two cohorts, the 'Queen,' and his sister as the 'Beacon' and Ruby Rose with those eyes of hers… he and his friend certainly had a lot on their plate right now, especially now that he considers a majority of these issues were gathered here at Beacon of all places.

At least the only real issues would be placating the Fall Maiden and dealing with the pseudo-maiden for now. After which, the only real threat left would be the Queen, though he highly doubted she would remain inactive that long.

Scratching the back of his head in worry at that last thought, Jaune held back the grimace that threatened to come forth. For much like his friend, he himself liked to try and plan things out, but alas he wasn't much of a planner either just like his friend was.

No choice then but to continue winging things until a clearer course of action could be decided on.

He just hoped this decision wouldn't cost him or others dearly.

* * *

"Sir, we're almost there. About another half hour at our current speed."

"Good," came the brisk reply of one Adam Taurus.

As a bull type Faunus and as one who had suffered unjust prejudice and discrimination growing up, Adam had very little patience for things in general. But now, he was able to display a surprising amount of it as he and a small handful of others were being flown in their illegally obtained bullhead to their destination:

Mount Glenn.

The mountain in question slowly appearing in sight, Adam gripped his weapon – Blush – tightly in barely suppressed anger.

Ever since Cinder and her two infuriating lackeys had managed to coerce him and his own men into aiding her, he'd been barely holding back his rage at having to work with a human as arrogant as her. It had only been the woman's power, cunning and resources that had stayed his hand at every point in time.

Until recently that is. Apparently, the ever so confident Cinder wasn't as capable as she had projected herself as being, with that scum Torchwick being thwarted in his Dust heists for good from what he'd been told. Never mind the fact that whatever scheme Cinder truly had in the works seemed to have hit a few significant snags if the woman's subtly hidden looks of frustration during their talks were anything to go by.

Add in the lives of more than a dozen White Fang soldiers being ended alongside Torchwick's own and now Adam felt he had more than enough reason to believe that it was time to step up to the plate himself. Cinder had boasted of everything being able to go according to plan back in the beginning, but now that clearly wasn't the case anymore. With the illusion of her apparent invincibility now shattered in his eyes, he could now saw the fire-wielding human for the overly smug bitch that he had always thought her to be in full.

She had no idea of his going to Mount Glenn and Adam planned to keep it that way. After the number of resources and Faunus lives she'd wasted, Cinder was no longer to be trusted no matter how much she tried to butter him and the others up with her words. She'd thought she had subdued him with the details of their last conversation, of how she would now be working to kill the blond enigma that had had a hand in the death of his fellow Faunus and Torchwick.

She was wrong.

The words had honestly enraged him at the time unlike almost anything that had come before. She really expected him to trust her to get rid of this unknown variable? She must truly be out of her mind if she did believe that. But while Adam fully intended to hunt down and kill this blond man, it is something that was going to have to wait for now.

For he intended to start the first part of Cinder's plan earlier than she expected. Admittedly, the woman was right to hold off on sending the train until Beacon Academy had sent out a majority of their students and professors on their missions, but at this point in time the plan had already been stalled significantly. Waiting any longer would likely result in it being halted outright for one reason or another.

And that was something Adam would not stand for. Even if the number of human casualties and the overall impact wouldn't be much, launching the train as soon as possible would still be bound to have an impact on Vale's overall morale, would still be bound to grab enough of the Grimm's attention to get them to slowly head towards that disgusting metropolis.

He and the rest of the White Fang will not see their efforts lead to nothing.

So with this determination quietly burning away within Adam, he leaned back into his seat, ever so eager to get to Mount Glenn to personally oversee the completion of that damned train.

With the number of extra men and woman also riding with him in this bullhead eager to help out, the train's final tweaks should be completed in just several days.

And then… then, he'll make sure that Vale _burns_.

* * *

 **Heh heh, talk about a gambit pileup, right? All of these people trying to figure out their next move all at the same time… oh boy, even though I'm the author, even I can scarcely imagine how it'll ultimately turn out. Hope I can write the next several chapters out well enough for everything to make sense.**

 **Whelp, if one thing is definitely certain, it's that the action is going to start cranking up again pretty soon! Hope you will all enjoy it!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	22. Chapter 22

Finally got around to watching episode 5 of RWBY volume 4. Hmm, on the one hand, it's nice to see more characters introduced, not to mention the reveals about Blake's family. But on another hand… not too sure for some reason. It just feels very odd that her dad wouldn't know about the change in the White Fang's methods given his ties to the group. Even when accounting for his other responsibilities and the like, it's been years since the group had changed things up so for him to only now know… feels odd, but I'll roll with it.

But from what I hear, episode 6 is quite exciting. Heh, I'll be looking forward to watching it when I can!

Now onto the chapter!

P.S. on the off-chance I don't get another chapter up in time, let me wish you guys in advance a Merry Christmas!

Chapter 22

Amber paced back and forth in her room, frustration growing within her with every passing minute.

The presence of that monster was literally eating away at her senses as it moved about often and sporadically, much more so than before. If she didn't know any better, the damned thing was trying to grab her attention and lure her out into the open, but she wasn't going to fall for such a trick; no doubt if she did, it would pounce upon her and attack. And with all of the people around, that wouldn't turn out well.

That said, the monster was certainly doing a damn good job at bugging the ever loving shit out of her, with the entity sometimes nearing her dangerously before suddenly withdrawing and flitting about elsewhere.

Seriously, it was driving her nuts. It was too early in the morning for this nonsense.

"Soon enough," she promised, however. Thanks to a combination of her own aura as well the maiden power bequeathed to her by the old man, her body had remained more or less the same as it had been prior to that ambush, though it had taken her some time to fully acclimate to her physical self. As for her actual maiden power, however, that was still in the process of restoring itself.

She was thankful it was even replenishing itself at all, but still a more impatient part of her wished it would speed up just a little bit more. As things currently stood though, she would estimate she was about at around 75% of her full might, which should be enough to deal with that power thief now that she knew what she was capable of.

Still, getting back all of her strength would make for greater odds in her favor and she was going to need it to combat that monster still moving about like some overgrown fly.

She shuddered at that particular comparison. Great, now she had just given herself a potential nightmare. She never did like insects very much… ironic considering how abundant they seemed to be during the fall season.

Ah and now she was getting off track.

Anyways, she found hard to believe it's already been 6 days since that woman had come here to this academy. Maybe it was because she'd been expecting the woman to already try something, but it had left her feeling on edge quite a bit in spite of her desire to get some payback. Oh well, she won't look a gift-horse in the mouth; while the woman no doubt had something nefarious planned, at least she wasn't apparently causing any trouble as of yet.

Now if only…

"If only you'd stop buzzing around!" she then yelled at the monster as it suddenly moved closer to her room before rebounding once more.

Seriously, will that thing ever stop?! She might go insane if this keeps up!

* * *

About several minutes of waiting passed by in complete silence for Jaune as he sat in his room, fiddling with some written reports Glynda had given him to keep himself occupied. He was once again thankful that Glynda printed these reports in braille for him. After all, while he could see aura with ease, the same couldn't be said for written works like before.

However, he was only marginally paying attention to the reports he held in his hands. Instead, he waited patiently for his friend to return.

And thankfully this didn't take much longer.

"So how'd it go?" he asked as he felt his friend's presence enter his room.

 _Frustration, but no actual reaction just yet. Luring her out is harder than I had originally expected._

In the past few days since his friend had done some reconnaissance on their 3 little 'guests,' the blackness had since then come up with the idea of luring out the Fall Maiden and leading her to that pseudo-maiden to duke it out.

Now Jaune, when he'd first been told of this idea, hadn't been too keen on it, but alas there hadn't seemed to be much else that could be done at the moment given how seemingly peaceful things were slowly becoming now that his fame seemed to be dying down a bit. He still didn't like the idea of having the two powerful women fight one another – a lot of things could go horribly wrong. Students and other faculty could potentially get caught up in the battle, the entire academy get could leveled in the process in short order, and there was no telling what would happen if somehow he got roped into such a conflict as well. And this still wasn't including the possibility that the pseudo-woman would kill the Fall Maiden and fully take her power. That would be bad, to put it mildly.

"Well, as much as she probably wants some payback, she's not gonna just dive headfirst into danger," he finally remarked to his friend, setting aside the reports for now as he leaned back in his seat.

 _True. But even then, I'd been expecting more of a reaction from her._

Due to the fact the maiden could sense his friend's presence, said entity had been using this fact to fly all over Beacon – unseen by others, of course – in an attempt to grate the maiden's nerves to the point where she would feel far too angered to ignore him any longer. So far this hadn't been working, which would probably mean a more extreme event would be required, but Jaune hoped to hell and back that such a thought would occur to his friend.

The last thing anyone here in Beacon needed was his friend dead-set on deliberately starting trouble just to get the Fall Maiden to come gunning for him. That would just be adding a truck-ton of fuel onto however big a fire his friend would start in such a scenario.

"…Are you sure this is really the best way to go about it?" Jaune couldn't help but ask. Due to his friend's many, many years of existence, he'd been content to let the entity's experience guide their plans even while knowing of said entity's noticeable lack of small-detail planning. Mainly because, all things considered, he himself was no better at truly long-term planning let alone accounting for all possible details.

Hmm, now that he thought of it, was this similarity between them merely a coincidence? Or was it also because of his circumstances of birth?

 _There are likely far more subtle and overall better ways of going about this. However, to one such as I and you by extension, such ways are lost to us. We are not the 'Mind,' Jaune… we are the 'Power.'_

Well, he supposed that answered his unasked question well enough. Put more simply, it wasn't his friend's nor his own role to do such complex thinking. Oh sure, the two of them have adapted as needed over time – how else could they have gotten this far without being truly detected? – but at the end of the day, his friend was 'Power' and Jaune as his Apostle was in a similar position. This was the opposite of his friend's other half, who is the 'Mind.' A role that now has fallen to the Queen since she's long since come to power.

…And now here he goes feeling nervous again.

"I get what you tell me, really I do… but still. There are so many ways this could go wrong that I almost want to laugh," Jaune said.

 _I understand your concern. However, this is perhaps the only thing that comes to me and is one of the quicker ways, if I 'do say so myself' as your parents sometimes said._

Running a hand through his hair now, Jaune could only sigh and say nothing further. He'd made his concerns known and it wasn't as if he was brimming with ideas either so just what else could he say at this point?

That being said, there was perhaps one other thing he could ultimately say…

"Well, do you think you can hold off on your plan for now? It may be the weekend, but I still need to do my own duties as an assistant professor," he said, hefting the reports up for his friend to see. "If something actually happened while I was in the middle of something, that would be pretty bad since there's no telling if I might need to step in."

 _A valid point. Very well. I will resume once you've finished with your tasks._

If there was one genuine upside to his friend's lack of human emotion, it would be his more logical approach to things, plans notwithstanding. So long as he was explained something in a reasonable manner, his friend was acquiesce to whatever request he made.

And he really needed this too; Glynda would be a little miffed if she discovered he hadn't read up on all of these reports. As a member of Beacon's faculty, it was required of him to be up to date on whatever new things came the academy's way.

And Jaune highly doubted he'd be able to talk his way out of his mentor's wrath should such a thing happen. Getting chewed out once by her was enough for him.

So as his friend took on his coat form and neatly lied upon a nearby chair, Jaune hunkered down on his bed and continued his reading, all the while praying that things wouldn't go southward again.

* * *

Cinder had woken up on this fine weekend morning hoping to start what was to be a pleasant day.

So far, this hope of hers had been trampled and pissed on, just like her plans as of recently.

Massaging her temple, her grip on her scrolls tightened to the point of nearly crushing it.

"What do you mean 'the train is almost ready for its launch?'" she asked through gritted teeth.

Having woken up and changed just little more than half an hour ago, she had decided to give a little call before going to get some breakfast.

Contrary to what some might expect, there were some Faunus among the White Fang who had fallen under her sway during their brief time working directly under her. And the person she had called was one such individual, namely one who was in charge of overseeing the preparation of the train under Mount Glenn.

"Err… exactly what it means?" came the somewhat meek over her scroll.

Oh, how she so wished to burn something right now. She was certain that her anger was a palpable force at this point. Given how quickly Emerald and Mercury had been in leaving the room just a moment ago under the excuse of 'grabbing her some grub,' this was probably true.

"I know what the words mean," she said with just a hint of a growl. "What I meant by my own words was this: how is this possible? Last I checked, the train shouldn't have been complete for a _much_ longer period of time."

She had been aiming to have the White Fang continue working on it at a slow and even almost casual pace so that it would be fully complete and rigged to blow by the time these Beacon students went on their missions. Instead, her she was hearing that it was being completed far ahead of schedule.

When the person replied, it was in a very low voice, likely not wanting to be overheard. This alone put Cinder suddenly on edge, but it was the man's actual reply that made her genuinely anxious. "Ma'am, I-I'm not too sure what to tell you. It's just that Adam Taurus showed up a few days ago-!"

"Stop right there," she said. "Adam Taurus is there right now?" She couldn't keep her incredulity from showing through.

"Y-Yeah. Showed up about 5 days ago, I think, with a lot of other guys in tow to help along with working on the train. I think he wants to send the train out very soon," the guy said with worry.

"How soon?!" Cinder demanded, nearly yelling.

"I-I think-!"

The man was abruptly cut off, Cinder inwardly snarling in anger as she audibly heard a sudden cry of surprise followed by a bit of grunting. When it finally quieted down a few seconds later, the voice on the other end of the scroll wasn't that same man anymore.

"Cinder," said one Adam Taurus. "Quite the morning so far, isn't it?"

"…Just what are you doing, Taurus?" Cinder questioned. "In case you don't remember properly, the plan requires the train to-."

"Ah yes. Your oh so precious plan," Adam spat out. "Well, plans change all the time, Cinder. And I had figured it was about time your game plan followed suit. You may have came on strong initially, but it's clear now that you're nowhere near as competent as you implied yourself to be."

At that, flames began to gather around Cinder's entire body in response to her anger. It was only thanks to her control over them that they didn't burn the very air around her… yet.

"Don't tell me you aim to hijack that train?" she said, already knowing and dreading the answer.

"Of course I am. I even went as far as to bring extra people to come and help speed things up a lot," Adam replied curtly. "And now that the train is finally done being loaded and tweaked, we can roll it out."

"When?" Cinder – not that she would ever admit it – pleaded.

"…Let's just say that Vale is about to experience a rather unpleasant noon," came Adam's cold reply. "Out of respect for our 'partnership,' I give you this heads-up now: try to avoid going into the city."

The call then ended abruptly.

Cinder nearly dropped her scroll and stared upwards, a myriad of emotions rushing through her.

Just how exactly had this happened? Everything was unwinding all around her and with a speed that she was unable to cope with. Things had gone so well initially for her – she'd persuaded Emerald and Mercury to join her, she had obtained some of the Fall Maiden's power, she had coerced the White Fang and Roman Torchwick to join her and had swiftly put the first phase of her plan into action.

And now here it all was blowing up in her face one at a time. Roman and that minx Neo were dead, the White Fang was now turning on her with Adam at the helm, having clearly not taken their previous conversation to heart and she'd yet to even begin to try and genuinely implement the second phase of the plan here at Beacon. She hadn't even been able to actually locate the Fall Maiden, let alone kill her and fully obtain her power.

And then there was also…

"That blond bastard…" she growled now. The one who had been responsible for a majority of this, even if somehow indirectly. He had been the one to thwart Roman initially here in Vale and no doubt had some involvement in the man's death alongside Neo and those White Fang grunts that had been with them. Simply by putting a stop to the Dust theft operation, this blond man had kick-started a series of events that have now led to this… to this impending clusterfuck.

And apparently, according to what Mercury and Emerald had told her just a few days back, the blond wasn't even blind.

Somehow, through a way they knew not, the blond man can _see_.

Well, in that case, Cinder certainly hoped he'll enjoy seeing the unwitting results of his actions, that interfering bastard.

But she wasn't about to let this mess spiral out of control even more; time for some kind of damage control.

Picking up her scroll again, she quickly called Emerald. And like the obedient girl that she was, she answered on the first ring.

"Yes ma'-?"

"Get back here, the both of you," Cinder commanded, bringing all of her authoritative aura to bear. "We have a situation on our hands that needs to be dealt with."

She just hoped that she could somehow salvage something out of this.

* * *

After having hanged up on Cinder, Adam had tossed the scroll aside without a care for it or its owner, who had hung back looking ashamed.

Under other circumstances, Adam might've executed the man for daring to work for such a despicable human, but in this case he was actually willing to overlook it; while he had many issues with Cinder, he could admit that she had a certain sway about her that could lure people in. Therefore, he could not fault the man too much for this.

But that didn't mean he was going to get off lightly.

Rather than just die outright, he was going to have this man die for the cause.

"You," Adam said, addressing the shaking man, a Lizard-type Faunus based on the scales he had. "I expect you to be manning the train. And you will see it through all the way to the end."

"…Yes sir," was all the man could say in response.

The way the train worked was simple enough; installed with a special mechanism in the front compartment that allowed remote disconnecting of each freight car so that they could then be triggered to explode and let Grimm into the underground tunnel. The one where the control terminal was located in was also stocked up with as much Dust as possible, rigged to explode on impact.

Originally, the train was to be sent with someone at the control until 2/3rds of the way to Vale before switching on an autopilot and disembarking. But now this man before Adam will serve as the train's conductor until the end of the line.

And even with his aura unlocked, there was no way this man would survive either the ensuing crash into Vale or the resulting explosion of the front car, let alone both.

And the man obviously knew this, his shaking growing even worse as he walked away from Adam and towards the train.

Adam followed closely behind the now expendable grunt just on the off chance he tried to make a break for it.

But he could tell that he needn't had bothered – not once did the man's walking posture indicate a potential change in direction.

Seeing this, Adam allowed himself to relax his right arm, the hand having been resting firmly on his sword's hilt. He then allowed himself a rare yet small smile.

He'd told Cinder just now that the train would be striking Vale at noon.

That had been a lie.

"Time to move out!" he yelled to everyone, most of the workers having been in the process of some minor touch ups on the train while others had been performing a weapons check. At the sound of his voice, however, they all immediately ceased what they were doing and proceeded to gather up their weapons and any additional armor some of them wore.

He slowed and then watched and waited as the grunt from before boarded the train and made his way to the front car.

Moments later, the train all but whirred to life slowly, the sound of steam hissing filling Adam's ears.

As the train was now ready to get moving, his smile grew and became more vicious.

He'd like to see Cinder try and stop this.

* * *

In the area around Mount Glenn and leading all the way to Vale's walls, Grimm roamed freely and aimlessly, contenting themselves with frolicking about without a care.

This changed not even a second later when all of them, without exception, came to a literal standstill. Nevermores, both small and gigantic, that had been in the midst of take off, paused with their wings about to fully expand. Beowulves that had been harmlessly wrestling about with one another simply ceased moving in mid-tumble. Ursas that had been clumsily lumbering about came to a stop whilst in the process of stepping, their large and cumbersome frames now showing off a balance that was unbefitting of them for the moment.

And further off in the distance, a number of Goliaths came to a halt amidst their otherwise never-ending walk.

For all of them were now receiving some new information, new orders, which was something they hadn't received for a very long time now.

Their 'Mind' beckoned them all forth now, all of them to the same location.

Nevermores squawked and resumed their flight. Beowulves ceased their wrestling and joined together as a pack. Ursas resumed their lumbering, but their steps were far more coordinated now, filled with purpose.

Goliaths let out roars that further inspired their fellow Grimm to march forth now to their destination.

To the city of Vale.

* * *

Through the eyes of the Grimm now marching forth towards Vale, the 'Queen' Salem smiled ever so delicately, a stark contrast between this and the pure white skin of her face.

The purple-ish veins that were around her eyes pulsed lightly as her eyes saw far beyond what they were physically capable of seeing, connected to each of the Grimm that only grew in number.

While this had been a somewhat unexpected turn of events, it wasn't something she couldn't take advantage of from afar as she often prone to doing.

For as the 'Mind' of the Grimm, she was easily capable of connecting to any and every Grimm on Remnant, using their senses as extensions of her own, directing them as she pleases.

Ha… the thing about the 'Queen' piece in chess is that it has the greatest amount of movement. And with this control of hers over the Grimm, it was honestly quite fitting.

A shame that she couldn't simply go and crush the kingdoms all at once or at least just one at a time. God knows that for all of the manpower and resources each kingdom possesses, they never would be able to properly prepare for strategic moves by the Grimm of all beings. Alas, for all of her power over the Grimm as the 'Mind,' there were certain rules that had to be abided by for the time being.

But once the proper time comes… then all bets will be truly off.

However, while she cannot truly go all out on the offensive just yet… there was nothing wrong with taking some advantage of opportunities as they pop up, as the White Fang were so eagerly about to provide her.

If nothing else, this will give her something to pass the time. And soften up Vale, of course.

Watching the White Fang's train now begin to disembark through the eyes of a small Nevermore that had been following the group in silence, Salem's smile grew ever more please.

"Now I wonder… just what will your response to this be, Ozpin? Or your own… Tenebrous?"

* * *

Approximately 15 minutes later, Ruby found herself very much enjoying the day so far.

As it was the weekend, it was naturally a time to be out and about, doing anything and everything that has absolutely nothing to do with schoolwork.

Normally, the 15 year old girl would be sleeping in, but in light of all of the crazy events that had been going on fairly recently, she had decided in her capacity as team leader – Yang would prefer the term 'spoiled little sis,' however – that team RWBY was to wake up early and head out into Vale for the day.

"All things considered, not a bad way to start the day…" an otherwise grumpy Weiss stated out of the blue from beside her.

Ruby could only snicker inwardly. While Weiss still retained a certain frosty edge to her, it was clear as day even to one as socially awkward as her that the heiress had figuratively thawed out quite a bit around her and their friends. At this point, comments that would've been mean simply come across as endearing since she obviously doesn't mean what she says anymore.

"Would've been nice to touch up my hair a bit more," Yang moaned, running a hand through her blonde locks.

"You take a half hour in the bathroom as it is. Any longer than that and you might as well just live in there," Blake said to her partner whilst doing a roll of the eyes. But the small smile on her face told Ruby that enjoyed the commentary.

"Hey, perfection takes time!" Yang proclaimed grandiosely, doing a swish of the hair that drew attention.

And as if to mock her statement, Ruby and the others bore witness to the sight of passer-bys merely looking at Yang in partial intrigue before just dismissing her outright.

Ruby had never laughed so hard at that moment at her older sister's expense. Could this somehow be…?! Payback for having left her on her own back when they'd arrived at Beacon?!

"Well aren't you looking happy," Weiss commented sardonically. "And surprisingly untalkative in spite of that."

Ruby had the decency to look embarrassed now, but still smiled nonetheless. Hey, at least she wasn't as hyperactive as Nora. Now that girl was a talkative one!

"Heh heh… just glad to see the team all back together again like this!" Ruby finally commented, spreading her arms out as if to motion to all of them. While technically speaking Blake had been back with them for several days or so now, this was the first time since before the pier incident that team RWBY was hanging out together again.

"…Ha, you sure said it, sis," Yang commented, rubbing Ruby's hair affectionately.

Which to Ruby herself translated more as 'mess up Ruby's hair time,' the young leader pouting when Yang pulled away and left her hair a complete mess.

As she then attempted to fix her hair, she became the laughing stock for Weiss and Blake, both of whom let out small amounts of laughter at her failing attempts to correct her hair.

"I'll get you back for this, Yang!" she proclaimed for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Ha, that's like the thousandth time you've said that! When do you plan to actually follow through on it, sis?" Yang teased in good humor.

"E-Erk…!" Had it really been the thousandth time she's said that? Wow, she really would have to do something about this soon!

But despite this embarrassment, Ruby found herself able to smile again and she and her team continued to walk deeper into Vale, exploring some streets that they hadn't had the time to explore last time they went out.

But just like last time, however, their fun and happy time was about to get cut short.

Amazingly, this was something that Ruby of all people was about to sense before it even happened. Call it intuition or pure dumb luck. In either case, the young leader, who had been point excitedly at a pastry shop just now, suddenly felt something _wrong_.

And that had been exactly when an explosion occurred somewhere in the distance.

The ground shook violently beneath their feet. Buildings that were much closer to the explosion began to collapse. People all across downtown Vale began to scream.

And as for team RWBY? All they could do was freeze up for a split second, their daily lives so suddenly interrupted that it took them all a second or two to fully process what had just occurred.

"Just what was that?!" Yang exclaimed.

"Only one way to find out!" Ruby then declared in determination, the sudden unsettling feeling just now prompting her to already switch into what she liked to call sometimes her 'battle mode.'

Beckoning her team with a quick wave of the hand, she then rocketed forth, her semblance allowing her to speed up far beyond what her teammates could achieve naturally, let alone when commanded so suddenly and indirectly.

Because of this, she was therefore the first person on the scene as she had quickly followed the smoke that had formed from the explosion.

And what she saw made her gasp quite dramatically.

What looked like the remains of a train had smashed its way through Vale's defensive wall, allowing all to see a huge tunnel that seemed to stretch on forever.

But it was what was now slowly pouring out of this massive hole that had Ruby's heartbeat quickening.

"Grimm…" she whispered.

Beowulves and Ursas and Boarbatusks slowly began to soldier forth from the hole. Nevermores of all sizes then began to make an appearance from overhead as well.

Oh so many Grimm. While they had just barely began to exit the tunnel, already their numbers looked to rival the number of Grimm that had been present during the Forever Falls incident.

And now all of those same dangerous Grimm began to turn their eyes towards the nearby and shell-shocked civilians.

And in that following instant, the sound of roars drowned out everything else in a stunned Ruby's ears.

* * *

From afar but rapidly approaching, Adam sneered with anticipation.

The train had gone off without a hitch as he'd been hoping it would.

With the Grimm having already somehow been heading towards Vale, it certainly hadn't taken very long for them to already start pouring into the heart of Vale.

"Just look at all of them…" muttered one of the White Fang grunts that watched from beside him in the bullhead.

Adam made no attempt to respond to the muttering – it had been more directed at the man himself rather than at him anyways – and instead directed his gaze upon the other men and women that sat in this bullhead.

All of them, while wide-eyed behind their masks at the number of Grimm traveling through or above the train tunnel, were armed and ready for combat, just waiting for him to give an order.

No doubt that the other operatives riding in the additional 3 bullheads were ready to fight as well.

This pleased Adam immensely. With the Grimm now beginning to wreak havoc in Vale, he and the other White Fang members in these bullheads will be able to easily step in during the chaos and pick off whoever was unfortunate enough to get in their way.

Depending on how much of a distraction the Grimm provide, they may even get an opportunity to head directly for Vale's councilmen, their intel placing some of these arrogant shits at being somewhere in Vale right now. Finding them shouldn't be too difficult a task – a number of the council liked to spend their wealth, accrued both from personal sources and likely discreetly siphoned from public taxes, on very lucrative things including high-priced cars and 5 star hotels.

Adam's grip on his weapon increased immensely at this thought. The council had always liked to spout drivel of equality when in reality they were nothing more than scum like the rest of the humans that used their influence for their own benefit. Oh sure, they may do their job at making sure Vale remained safe, but Adam was more than certain that the council members all had some dark secrets of their own.

And here and now on this day, he will gleefully bring those secrets to light during this beginning chaos, right before the rest of the kingdom to see.

And then, once he and his operatives have crushed the council's dignity, they'll crush them live on TV.

What a wonderful message that would be to the rest of the world.

As Vale came ever closer into sight now, Adam's sneer took on an angry yet paradoxically joyful quality, a perfect indication of how far he's fallen even if he doesn't know it.

Time to get to work.

* * *

 **Sorry that this chapter took so long despite its somewhat short length – for a few days, I had felt a bit under the weather, which had kept me too distracted by my own headaches and stuff to write much. I feel much better now though, so this shouldn't happen again any time soon.**

 **Well, with Christmas right around the corner by now, I will be busy doing some things with the family in addition to work and writing a fair bit for my original novel, so in all likelihood the next chapter won't be up until around New Year's Eve, though hopefully a bit before that.**

 **So with that said, until next time everyone! Take care and have a great holiday!**


	23. Chapter 23

Phew, looks like I managed to get this chapter out just before the start of 2017! Man, talk about a close call, ha ha ha. And damn, how long it's been since I've started this fic! To be fair, I do alternate between working on this and my original novel, so it's to be expected.. but still, can't help but be a little disappointed in myself at how long it seems to take for me to update this fic.

Ha, well that aside, I hope you all had a great Christmas and will have an equally great New Year. I aim to try and make speeding up my writing/updating pace a goal for this year, but only time will tell how this will play out. Wish me luck!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 23

Through the eyes of her many Grimm, Salem watched in glee as Beowulves immediately beset themselves upon the still stunned civilians closest to the hole in the wall.

Through the eyes of the Nevermores that now flocked above downtown Vale, she watched as police immediately mobilized, several of them already on the radio to no doubt contact that backstabbing Ozpin about this situation.

But what held her interest the most right now…

"That girl…" she muttered as one of her Nevermoes located one Ruby Rose standing atop a building in shock.

The sight of the silver eyed girl actually made her smile a little in amusement. For it was obvious the girl had yet to even remotely unlock the power of those eyes. Oh well, not that it honestly would've made much of a difference in the long run; the power that had long been developed into those silver eyes would prove no trouble to her in a direct confrontation. Against the lesser Grimm, it would certainly be a game-changer… but against her own might? A marginal annoyance at best.

Still, it'd be best to make the girl's death or at least incapacitation a fairly high priority.

As the 'Mind' of the Grimm, Salem transmitted her intent to all of the Grimm currently in the area where the girl was at.

And as she did so, she watched through her connection as the Nevermores there quickly responded to her will.

She held no doubts about how this would ultimately go, but still…

Time to slaughter a little.

* * *

Ruby Rose would have no problem saying that she could be easily taken aback by things. It was what made her such a good target for little jokes from her sister and dad growing up.

But on the battlefield? This trait could be dangerous to her.

And this was nearly proven true when she just barely saw more than five Nevermores the size of her arm suddenly rush at her. Had they not squawked viciously, she might not have detected them in time.

She ducked and tumbled off of the building, spinning through the air and landing on the ground barely a few seconds later. That had been way too close.

But she wasn't out of danger just yet.

The instant she stood up fully, it was to see a Boarbatusk come barreling out of the hole and charge directly at her.

With a shrill 'eek!' that would do a scream queen in a horror movie proud, Ruby rolled to her left to avoid its charge.

And that had been when a Beowulf, having remained eerily quiet, came out of nowhere, swiping at her with its sharp claws. Ruby could only look on in wide eyes as the claws neared her during the ending part of her roll, even as she tried to escape this situation. And in a way, she managed to do so, reaching up with both of her arms in an attempt to mimic the blocking stance of Jaune of all people, just as she'd seen him do during his battle with professor Port.

Unlike the assistant professor she just tried to mimic, her block would have been imperfect even if she'd done it under controlled circumstances such as training. Here in the midst of combat, mentally frazzled and at the last minute? Her attempt to mimic the blond man's block was laughable at best. Combined with her much smaller frame and lighter body, the hit from the Beowulf broke through her guard with ease and sent her sailing through the air-.

-Right into the path of a Boarbatusk that had just appeared onto the scene. It caught the silver eyed girl at an odd angle, its right tusk smashing against the right side of Ruby's torso from behind.

Ruby could only cry out in pain as her aura must have been depleted by a good twenty percent, maybe even more.

She went tumbling forward and rolled across the ground. Ruby tried to stop her rolling, tried to get up, but the force of the blow was too much for her to fully recover from.

The Boarbatusk kept on charging, intent on striking her again.

And she was currently unable to do anything about this.

Even as she tried futilely to do something – _anything_ – to stop her rolling and deal with the charging Grimm, all she actually could do was make note of its quickening approach and mentally brace for impact.

Just how had this day oh so suddenly gone wrong? Why were there so many Grimm pouring into Vale? How could she protect the people if this was to be her current fate right now? These three questions and more bounced around inside her head as she closed her eyes and awaited the following blow.

Which, thankfully, never came.

"Ruby!" cried out a familiar voice, one that's always called out her name in that exact same kind of loud and concerned tone whenever she was in a bad situation.

She opened her eyes in time to see her big sister Yang finally arrive on the scene, the buxom blonde immediately throwing herself in between her and the charging Boarbatusk. She apparently took the Grimm by surprise, because it let out a sound that might've been mistaken for being caught off guard. As such, it wasn't ready for Yang grabbing hold of its tusks and pivoting with as much speed and strength as possible.

Ruby watched now with wide eyes as her sister redirected the Grimm's charge, sending it smashing into the ground and skidding a good several yards.

"You dolt! Don't go running off like that again!" cried out another angry yet concerned voice – Weiss.

Her rolling reaching an end now, Ruby could only laugh weakly. "Eheh… I'll keep that in mind."

Getting up as quickly as she could, she looked in time to see Weiss and Blake rush up to her, dancing around the Grimm that tried to attack them.

Seeing her teammates rejoin her side, Ruby allowed herself a smile.

Time to fight back now.

* * *

Yang's normally lilac eyes were red with rage, eyeing the Boarbatusk she'd just thrown aside with all of her immediate fury.

When Ruby had gone dashing off earlier, that had been when the all too familiar roars and squawks and squeals of the Grimm had rang out all across the area and had filled the blonde brawler with fear immediately, fear for her little sister and she'd been right in feeling it.

Had she not shown up just now…

She shook her head, trying to remain calm. No sense in losing her temper, at least not yet.

Idly, she noted Weiss and Blake finally catch up with them, causing her to smirk ever so slightly, but only because as a group they should have a fighting chance.

But against this many Grimm.

"So what's the plan?" Blake immediately said upon getting close, the cat Faunus all business right now. No questions about why there were suddenly Grimm everywhere or anything, just straight up 'how to deal with them?' words right off the bat.

God, how Yang loved her partner sometimes.

That being said, this was clearly not the time to be having any lax thoughts; the Grimm all around them were acting extremely odd.

What looked to be about half of the Grimm were simply running amok, rushing deeper and deeper into Vale and giving chase after any civilians they saw. But the other half…

…The other half of the Grimm, consisting mainly of Beowulves with a few Ursas finally lumbering into the group, surrounded the four of them and merely watched and waited.

It was definitely a shocking and unnerving thing to say the least.

The Grimm were creatures of darkness and savagery, always on the move, always attacking whoever happened to cross their paths.

This intent waiting, as if watching first to see them screw up before pouncing, was something far beyond abnormal, but Yang didn't dare allow such a fact overwhelm her mind. If that happened, she wouldn't be able to fight effectively… and with this man Grimm around, not even the thrill-seeking her would be able to do much about it even with her team at her side.

"Did you already call your weapons?" Ruby finally spoke up, the young girl sounding serious, in charge, like a leader should be. It was almost enough to make Yang smile a little. Almost.

"Way ahead of there, sis; our weapons are already on the way. Called them as soon as we heard the Grimm," Yang replied, taking up a combative stance just as one of the Beowulves started inching a little closer.

From her periphery vision, she saw Weiss and Blake face the Grimm as well, taking up defensive postures for now. She could see if only marginally expressions of befuddlement and worry on their faces, no doubt the two of them just as taken aback by this oddity as much as she was.

Now that thought of it, it was almost like how the Grimm seemed to act during the Forever Falls incident. Yet at the same time, it was still far different in terms of scale.

Yang's thoughts were interrupted, however, when a sound from up above caught her attention.

That rocket locker of Beacon's… specifically hers with her beloved Ember Celica within it. And not too far off behind her locker was Weiss' and Blake's.

"Alright!" Ruby cried out. Having just called her locker on her scroll just now, it'd be another moment or so before it gets here. "Okay, so here's the plan: until others show up to help, we're going to need to cordon off this whole area – suppress the Grimm as much as possible until more people come to help seal up this hole! Then we can go after the other Grim-!"

Ruby's fairly solid plan was cut short when something unthinkable happened, so much so that Yang could only look on with a wide open mouth as it happened.

While Nevermores still flew over the wall and haphazardly at that, when their lockers were little more than twenty yards up and away and rapidly approaching, several of the Nevermores promptly reacted.

Exactly three of these Grimm, each one about the size of a large car, swiftly altered their course in the air… and _rammed_ head-first into each of their lockers, lowering their heads so that the very top of their skulls – noted to be surprisingly sturdy – impacted against the sides of the lockers.

The rocket lockers were knocked off course from the sheer speed and power of the simultaneous rams, but it didn't end there just yet – the Nevermores that struck them then swept under them and proceeded to fly off whilst six more of them, smaller but still comparable in size, flew up and reached out with their talons, grabbing hold of the lockers.

All team RWBY, utterly stunned by this, could do was watch as the six Nevermores flew off into the distance with their lockers in tow, dropping them eventually somewhere that had to be at least a good ten blocks away.

And that had been when the Grimm that had surrounded them on the ground seemed to actually snort in mocking amusement.

And the last thing Yang could immediately recall before chaos erupted was the sound of one of the Beowulves howling for the attack to now begin.

* * *

The blackness, having contented itself with merely watching Jaune 'read' in peace, suddenly stiffened up.

This was something that its Apostle noticed right away. "What is it?" Jaune asked immediately in worry.

… _Grimm are in Vale._

It uttered these four words to its Apostle with some kind of emotion, not quite worry, but hardly anything positive.

And as would be expected, its words caused Jaune to all but leap off his bed in shock. "What?! How?!"

Before the blackness could respond, however, Jaune's scroll suddenly began to ring. The blackness then watched its champion direct his gaze to his scroll hesitantly.

 _Answer it, Jaune. It could be about this oddity._

Jaune reluctantly answer the call his scroll received. The blackness merely remained quiet and watched as its Apostle quickly responded to whoever was on the other end of the line.

It was only half a minute later that the call ended.

"That was directly from the headmaster… he just got a call of his own from the police commissioner about the appearance of Grimm in Vale. Due to the sheer number of Grimm as well as some 'anomalies' in their behavior, Ozpin is personally directing a majority of the faculty to go aid the city."

The blackness made a noise that was perhaps its version of a hum of acknowledgement. Ordinarily, it was wise to keep the stronger combatants here in case the Grimm somehow made their way to Beacon. For the headmaster to mobilize most of the faculty and likely the students as well to go fight in Vale said much about its current state.

In which case…

 _Then go, Jaune. We cannot afford to waste much time then._

It needn't have bothered; its Apostle was already heading for the door. "What about you? What do you plan to do?" Jaune asked of it.

 _With how bad the situation must quickly be becoming right now, going directly with you may only make things worse. So it would likely be best to remain behind in my case._

"…No," Jaune said. "I don't think that's quite right."

The blond young man turned and faced the blackness who simply eyed him back, the red glows that passed for its eyes looking at its friend and champion curiously.

"Isn't everything we're doing for the sake of humanity? If so, then is this really a time for you to genuinely do nothing?"

…

Silence was the only answer the blackness could immediately give to Jaune, digesting his words carefully.

And it found Jaune to have quite the point. For the longest time, it had done nothing until it had managed to direct Jaune to it all that time ago… and since then, it has done its best to keep itself and Jaune under the figurative wraps as needed. However, in all that time, the Grimm had still been doing what they've always done against and for humanity.

And now with the so-called Queen – Salem – likely making her first move in Vale, could it really afford to do nothing whilst its Apostle and others went to join the fray? And taking into consideration the potential reactions the Fall Maiden and Salem's pawn may have to this scenario, wouldn't staying behind pose a risk to Jaune should those two go to the battlefield as well?

… _Very well. I will help._

It stated this with its usual emotionless tone of 'voice.' And yet, there was something markedly different in how it said this anyways, at least as far as the blackness itself could detect in a moment of self-awareness.

 _However, I will not be doing direct battle; as things stand currently, there will be plenty of trainees and actual huntsmen and huntresses to push back against the Grimm. Therefore, I will see to the civilians that will be inevitably caught in the crossfire._

It then quirked a figurative eyebrow as Jaune then chuckled. "That's more than fine. I'll be going on ahead then."

The blackness then watched as Jaune promptly rushed out of the room, closing the door behind him as nothing more than an afterthought.

This left the blackness all to itself for the moment and this was a moment it somewhat needed to further think things through.

Not for the first time, the blackness pondered if not simply killing Salem itself was the right thing to do. And not for the first time, it argued against killing Salem on its lonesome; while killing her one-on-one would be a 'cakewalk' as humans say, the fallout wasn't something that could immediately be dealt with. Therefore, until Jaune was fully ready himself to take on Salem, killing the woman in question wasn't a good option.

So with this in mind, it now turned its thoughts to the situation in Vale. Even from here, the blackness could already detect the growing number of Grimm within the city's downtown area as well as the greater than usual influence that Salem as the 'Mind' was having upon them.

At the rate things were going, many would die before the forces of the police and Beacon could quell the sudden invasion. Therefore, in order to save as many people as possible, it would have to act quickly.

However, going to Vale in its current form wouldn't do. While it certainly possessed a great degree of control over its mist-like form of pure darkness, rescuing civilians would be difficult like this as its very presence would slowly crush their minds and souls, especially if it enveloped them to move them to safety.

So to remedy this… it would need to take on a physical form.

With this now in mind, the blackness moved from the room and out into the forest surrounding Beacon.

There, its form began to shift little by little as it headed for Vale.

* * *

All throughout the forest and Vale, the Grimm shuddered as the influence of the 'Power' began to wash over them. It was muted compared to years before, but it was still enough to almost match the influence of the 'Mind' and that fact alone was nearly enough to make the Grimm become increasingly difficult for Salem to control, even if said control was minor at best.

That being said, from her abode, Salem herself could only grunt in exertion.

As the 'Mind' of the Grimm, she had absolute control over their actions, though she mainly regulated their otherwise mindless states of being so that they didn't fly off the handle all the time.

However, with Tenebrous – the 'Power' – now on the move and already quickly moving to Vale, this control was threatened as Tenebrous wasn't simply 'Power,' but also something of an 'enactor,' which is to say that its very presence can fully bring out the instincts of every Grimm within a certain distance of it.

Oh well, it wasn't as if she was fully controlling all of the Grimm currently in Vale – merely giving them certain kinds of information and orders to act on.

That being said, Tenebrous' very existence was still incredibly strong despite its current state.

"Heh, truly you and your Apostle will be the most cumbersome to deal with…" Salem couldn't help but mutter.

Indeed, of all the people that could possibly oppose her, Tenebrous and its Apostle were the only ones that could truly threaten, the former much more so than the latter as of now.

After all, despite Tenebrous having converted a massive portion of its very _existence_ into a sort of 'unlocking mechanism' or 'booster' for its Apostle's innate power, it was still the most powerful thing on the planet. If she had to make an accurate estimate, she'd say that even in its drastically weakened state, Tenebrous was still roughly eighty-two times more powerful than its Apostle right now.

And needless to say, that made the entity much stronger than her in terms of overall power. So it wouldn't be difficult at all for it to have simply killed her at the drop of a hat. Though there was one way that she could perhaps rival its power… though said method was certainly very risky to say the least.

But alas, she was perhaps worrying over nothing – Tenebrous wouldn't dare kill her. As the 'Mind,' she was, after all, the only thing keeping all of the Grimm in existence in check. Should she be killed, the Grimm would become truly mindless and go completely berserk and relentlessly begin hunting down all humans that they could see. And while in such a scenario the Grimm would lack the tactical cunning she can grant them, the sheer tenacity they all would have in addition to their numbers would make up for that.

Not to mention the fact that hiding from the Grimm would be virtually impossible in such a situation for humanity; in addition to the standard five senses, the Grimm all possess an additional type of sixth sense, one that allowed them to see aura… very much like what Tenebrous had granted its Apostle in exchange for his physical sight, only the Grimms' 'aura vision' was only really capable of picking up aura when it was particularly strong with emotion.

Well… now that she really thought on this scenario, she supposed it would be possible for Tenebrous to remedy it by taking over the role as the 'Mind,' but that wasn't possible – the entity had served as a near mindless 'Power' for so long that it wasn't until fairly recently that it had mentally developed to its current level. To become the 'Mind' would require another century's worth of evolution before it would be capable of fulfilling such a role and only barely at that.

But then, she supposed, that's where its Apostle enters the equation. After all, its Apostle as a human was naturally much more developed mentally than Tenebrous was in a manner of speaking. But even then, having its Apostle kill her and take over her role as the 'Mind' would be impossible until the young man fully ascends as well. And that was still a ways off so she had time to further prepare for that particular encounter.

Salem could only chuckle though.

All things considered, such an encounter would be rather fun, for there's only so much that she could directly do all on her lonesome.

"So whatever happens… I hope you'll live up to expectations, young Apostle," Salem whispered, if only to herself. "It's been nearly a century and a half since I've killed someone directly, after all."

* * *

Of all the ways she'd imagined spending this nice and sunny day, being sent into Vale alongside dozens of other students to combat Grimm honestly wasn't something Nora had been anticipating.

Normally, the thought of fighting Grimm or even fighting in general would've filled the auburn haired girl with maddening glee.

But as she and the others leapt out of bullheads and into the streets of Vale below, all she could feel was a disquieting sense of worry.

For the instant she landed, the hammer wielding girl knew that things were going to be different.

And this was proven most true when an Ursa, having been about to attack a downed civilian, noticed her presence alongside her friends… and hastily retreated, its burly body hunched over in such a way that its thick back and skull would protect its against most bullets.

Not that it did much against the grenade round she immediately launched at it.

The grenade striking the Grimm an instant after firing, the Ursa's pained roar filled the air and prompted Pyrrha – having landed right next to Nora just now – to cut off said sound by way of throwing her weapon in its javelin form directly towards is now exposed throat.

The weapon piercing the exposed vital spot with ease, the Ursa ceased its roars and stumbled back awkwardly before slowly beginning to dissipate, an indication of its death.

And unlike the other times before, Nora knew no elation from this act.

By this point, Ren and Jeanne had landed, the latter more clumsily than the others by way of accidentally rolling forward following the initial landing. Nora had to give her props though for turning the roll into a successful defensive stance in the end.

But this somewhat humorous moment was very short-lived for that was when the area, for lack for a better way to put it, began to essentially bleed Grimm.

From every around every corner, from every crevice, from virtually every point in the sky above, Grimm began to appear in droves.

Nora gripped Magnhild tightly and she could even hear the grip on other weapons audibly tighten up as well as more students touched ground.

The auburn haired girl stood alongside her friends, Jeanne taking point as the leader and 'tank' of their team, her shield at the ready. Nora herself switched Magnhild to its hammer form as the Grimm all charged directly at them.

Heh. Nora couldn't help but inwardly chuckle. Walking into this situation, she'd had a very bad feeling, but despite their numbers, the Grimm already seemed to be acting like they normally did. So maybe this wouldn't be so-.

Before she could fully finish that thought, it was proven wrong.

As the Grimm neared quickly, the veritable horde suddenly split in two and ran to the sides, forcing Nora and the other students to turn and face the now two massive groups.

And that had perhaps been a mistake.

Sounds that resembled something being torn apart resounded from above them all and Nora was one of several trainees that looked up to see the source.

And the sight chilled her.

The Nevermores that they all had ignored due to the rushing of the ground based Grimm hadn't simply been flying about randomly – they'd flown directly into the bullheads that had dropped off the students, the larger of the Nevermores outright slamming into the flying contraptions while the smaller ones had launched innumerable amounts of razor sharp feathers at them.

Ordinarily, the bullheads were built to shrug off such damage, but when it was all stacked like this, they stood no chance.

As such, the last thing Nora saw as she had looked up was the now destroyed remains of the bullheads as they fell upon her and the other students.

Sparing the briefest of glances to the Grimm all around them, comprised mainly of Beowulves and Ursas, Nora could've sworn they all wore something akin to smiles.

And that was when the Grimm finally began to attack, amidst the rain of debris and flames and feathers.

* * *

Through several cameras that he had wringed control of, Ozpin watched the chaos unfold in the heart of Vale with a frozen posture, the headmaster's experience failing to keep him in control of his emotions at the sights he was seeing.

This was truly unlike anything he'd ever seen before and it left him at a genuine loss as to what to do.

In one camera, he saw team RWBY valiantly fighting against an ever-growing pack of Beowulves with nothing save for their own limbs and wits. He watched for a brief second just as Weiss Schnee barely dodged a swipe to her left hip before pivoting and delivering a frantic chop to the back of the Beowulf's neck.

In another camera, he saw numerous students under siege by Grimm just as the destroyed bullheads that had just dropped them off fell upon them. Some of the students had managed to get just a few shots off before the debris fell on them, knocking back only a meager few of the Grimm that surged forth. His heart felt so very heavy as the Grimm immediately pounced upon the students that had somehow managed to avoid being temporarily crushed under the wreckage.

In a third camera, he could see several policemen trying with all their might to force back the Grimm from a shelter that had been formed for the citizens. But they were running out of bullets as the Grimm pushed on with horrifying cunning, with one wave of Grimm literally hiding behind the initial wave, capitalizing on the very instances where the officers had to reload.

It was only thanks to having witnessed many horrors before that Ozpin didn't avert his gaze when the second and third waves of Grimm began to tear through the policemen, said officers' aura too weak or too little to hold up for long before they were ripped through.

The last thing he could bear witness to, however, was a massive Boarbatusk smashing its way through the barricade that the policemen had been protecting, the screams of the civilians within the building screaming loud enough for even the camera to clearly pick up on as the Grimm surged inwards…

Ozpin's fists clenched dangerously at this as he finally turned away… and looked towards those that stood in his office.

Specifically two women, for all of the other professors had been mobilized.

"Glynda, go support the others as quickly as you can," Ozpin ordered, his will of steel now manifesting in his voice. This was no time for sadness. Further action was needed. "Focus first on the Nevermores if you can; they've been targeting the bullheads and the combatants' weapons."

With a nod sterner than any other she's given, Glynda promptly turned and left, the last expression Ozpin had just seen on her face being one of barely controlled rage.

And then he finally turned to the other woman in his office.

"Amber…." He began, his voice now much softer. "I know this may sound selfish of me given your various circumstances, but please… we need your help."

He knew full well the capabilities of his fellow faculty. Among them, Bart, Peter, and Glynda were the strongest with the young and enigmatic Jaune Arc being just as powerful as they were despite his age and very much tempting secrets.

However, even then… he worried. He feared. The Grimm weren't acting like they normally did, not one bit. There was only one other time in his life where they'd acted so unnaturally and even then it hadn't been to this extent.

It reminded him of when he and…

He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts. "I know that as a maiden, remaining in hiding is the only way to have a relatively peaceful life. But if this day is any indication so far, peaceful days are going to be ending very soon for all of us." He wished dearly to go to the battlefield himself… but he was sadly needed here, acting as both commander and witness to everything. "We need your power, Amber. Now more so than ever."

He honestly wasn't sure what to expect. As one who had extensively studied the maidens, Ozpin knew that the four of them would be morally upstanding women for the most part or else they never would've moved that old man's heart enough to obtain their power in the first place. But people can change over the years and considering how much Amber must have given up just to avoid having people coming after her for her maiden powers, it honestly wouldn't be too surprising if she said no to him right now.

"Don't worry… I'll definitely help out," Amber said suddenly. She smiled then. Apparently his shock must have shown on his face in some form. "I can guess what you're thinking and I can't fault you for that. But I've never turned away from a crisis taking place before my eyes. I'll go and support them all as best as I can… my power has almost fully recovered anyways."

Ozpin could only bow his head, uncertain of what exactly he should feel. But he knew what he was feeling right now. "Thank you, Amber. And best of luck."

The brunette merely nodded before turning to leave.

Ozpin watched her go, hoping that things would soon make a turnaround for the better.

* * *

As soon as she left the office and took the elevator to the ground floor, Amber's soft expression of just a moment ago was replaced with one of determination and rage.

Much like Ozpin had no doubt thought, her maiden powers had forced her to become a wanderer without a home thanks to the sheer number of people who'd seek her out for her power. But while she could admit in a moment of self-reflection that such a lonesome and never-ending journey had left her rather cynical in some respects, she was still that same good-hearted woman from before, when she and the others had first met that old man.

And now that same part of her yelled at her to hurry, to go and help with crushing the Grimm as quickly as possible.

But not simply because it was the right thing to do… but also because she was perhaps the only one who could deal with what was heading their way.

That damnable monster from before. She had sensed it exiting the academy and settling in the surrounding forest for a few minutes before it shot forth towards Vale just a minute ago.

It was _already there_. Who knew just what it would now do amidst the chaos?

No one else was powerful enough to take it on, not even if they teamed up. Therefore the duty fell to her to take care of it while she helped out the others.

Her fists tightening as the elevator finally came to a stop and opened up, Amber shot forth at full speed.

Time to finally confront this monster.

* * *

To say that Adam was confused by what was going on might be an understatement.

Never before had he seen the Grimm act in such a manner.

As the bullheads carrying himself and the others had approached Vale, he'd been expecting some of the local law enforcement to spot them even with the current chaos and attempt to shoot them down. But this had never happened.

Several large Nevermores had flown directly beneath each of the bullhead, having obstructed them from view of whoever down below might have looked up in their direction.

There was no way this could've been some kind of coincidence. Something was going on here with the Grimm.

And the others seemed to sense this as well.

"Sir… should we still proceed with this?" spoke one White Fang member.

"Yes," came Adam's gruff reply. "We've already come this far. We will not be backing out now."

Indeed. The odd behavior of the Grimm notwithstanding, they all still had a mission to carry out. And he wouldn't let anything stop this from happening, no matter what it may be.

As the bullheads finally came to a relatively safe spot to land, atop a plethora of large rooftops, Adam gave the order to disembark.

And as they all left the bullheads, Adam forced all of his thoughts and doubts to be locked away. Now was no longer the time for thought.

Now it was the time for action.

* * *

 **Hope this chapter will have you all excited for what's to come next. This has set the stage for various conflicts to occur during this Breach and they will be lasting a fair while… so I hope you will enjoy the surprises that will come with each battle!**

 **Again, it's my wish that you all had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	24. Chapter 24

Hey there, everyone! Hope you all had a good New Year and that this year is off to a great start so far for you all. Man, a lot of things set to happen this year – new games, new movies, new animes and more – so I have high hopes for 2017 in terms of entertainment material. How about you guys? Excited for anything new coming out, be it an actual item or something else? Got graduated, or got new/good jobs, rekindled old friendships, anything? If so, then I'm happy for guys!

Not much to really say about this chapter in particular other than that this Breach event may last a while in order to accommodate all of the things I feel need to take place during this time. And there will be some more exposition too in order to give you all a better idea of what's to come or how things work. Hope you will enjoy all of the fighting and info-dumping!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 24

With speed and grace, Jaune rushed down the street, lashing out at virtually everything that was around him.

How could he not when the entire street was practically filled with Grimm?

Normally, he was incapable of actually seeing said creatures due to their lack of aura, but the aura of the policemen in the area along with the civilians had helped to 'light up' the whole area for him, including the forms of the various Grimm, which made pinpointing them and attacking much easier.

Combined with his increase in strength following his fight with Peter and Jaune found himself dispatching each of the Beowulves and Ursas that he came across with ease, punching through heads, piercing through torsos, and kicking through limbs like a humanoid hurricane.

Each and every Grimm did little to even defend themselves too, which was definitely an added bonus especially since he could faintly hear the policemen slowly begin to push back whatever Grimm he missed thanks to this.

And he knew exactly why this was happening.

It was all thanks to the growing 'authority' he had gained as his friend's Apostle. Since he would one day take his friend's place as the 'Power,' he had slowly begun to naturally develop the ability to awaken the instincts of all Grimm. This was an ability he had been attempting to suppress in order to keep the Grimm from becoming even more dangerous to civilians and huntsmen/huntresses alike as they all would be unprepared for tougher Grimm.

The thing about this whole 'instinct' thing, however, was a bit of a tricky thing. Back when Grimm were first made – which had occurred long ago when humanity still functioned as hunter gatherers without the benefit of unlocked aura – said creatures of darkness had been based on the various animals that humanity back then had feared yet hunted due to their strength and cunning. Animals such as wolves, gorillas, bears, large birds, snakes, boars and more had provided the basis for majority of the Grimm while some such as the Creeps, Griffons, and Geists had been based on the exotic nightmares people had had back then. The rarer, older and most importantly more powerful Grimm such as the Wyverns and Sea Dragon ones had been based on myths and folklores that people had begun speaking of long ago back then.

However, while the Grimm had been made by the 'Mind' and 'Power' back then, they had lacked the natural instinct that the creatures they were based on had. It was only when in the general presence of the 'Power' who served as an 'enactor' that these instincts would finally surface within the Grimm. And when they did, the Grimm would naturally become far more dangerous opponents; their senses were sharpened to their utmost, they no longer had tunnel vision when it came to prey, if they sensed something dangerous immediately coming at them then they would attempt to avoid it. These otherwise minor things would serve to make the Grimm that much more deadly to humanity and when supplemented by actual cunning and tactics from the 'Mind,' they were to serve as mankind's ultimate enemy and most importantly as mankind's 'trial.'

The kicker for this, though, was that the 'Mind' and 'Power' were both required to be in agreement on their collective purpose. Only when the two driving forces behind the Grimm were figuratively united could the Grimm be at their absolutely most dangerous. Given that his friend, Tenebrous – one of several names his friend had – had been a relatively mindless entity himself back then, this hadn't posed much of an issue.

It hadn't been until the 'Mind' had attempted to reach out to its Apostle – the Queen, Salem – that things had gone wrong as the Apostle had turned on the 'Mind' and forced a complete ascension and merge. Since then, his friend had begun to develop mentally and emotionally and because of how Salem wished to use the Grimm as her own personal army to attempt to outright wipe out humanity, the united front between 'Mind' and 'Power' had been broken.

Because of this, it had become a contest of control and one that Jaune was now taking part in by sheer virtue of both existing and being near the Grimm. His growing 'authority' was trying to make the Grimm essentially act one way while Salem's 'authority' as the 'Mind' was trying to make the Grimm obey whatever orders she had given them for this invasion in Vale. As a result, this warring mental conflict was somewhat short-circuiting all Grimm that got within several meters of Jaune, reducing their reflexes and reducing their alertness to everything around them as their minds were being strongly pulled in opposite directions.

Well, Jaune certainly wasn't going to complain about this and he doubted the policemen he'd just passed by were upset either, if the various cries of renewed vigor were anything to go by. It brought a small smile to his face to know that people would be so willing to keep fighting on even if the odds were still against them.

But this smile only lasted for what felt like an instant to the blind blond. For there was still much to do and unfortunately it wasn't as if his advantage was all encompassing one. Normally, his range was much greater, but since Salem was seemingly running the show here, the number of Grimm he could affect with his 'authority' had been dampened to the point where it could only affect those within maybe fifteen meters of himself. This meant that whoever may be combating Grimm a block or more away from his current location were dealing with Salem-backed Grimm.

This troubled him, naturally. But he held back his desire to go and directly help the groups. God above, he really wanted to though. But if this breach was to be dealt with as quickly as possible then he couldn't afford to spread himself too thin this far out from where the breach was at. After all, as powerful as he is, he couldn't be everywhere sadly enough.

However, if he could at least get to where the breach was at, his authority would greatly weaken the Grimm that are pouring into the city and he along with whoever else could be in the area will be able to hold them back much more effectively until something can be done to cover the breach. Then when that is dealt with, he and others would be able to head back into the other areas of Vale to help deal with the remaining Grimm.

This was a simple plan, no doubt about that… but Jaune felt it could be effective.

He was especially confident in this since prior to the bullhead dropping him and the other professors off near the outskirts of Vale, Ozpin's last message to them had been about him contacting General James Ironwood for support. Apparently, Atlas' top commander and an entire fleet worth of soldiers had already been on their way to Beacon for the Vytal Festival and they had been scheduled to arrive some time today.

So if they all could just hold out, Atlas would be able to provide much needed manpower and support.

But firstly…

"I have to make my way there…" Jaune muttered just as he lashed out with a punch that instantly killed a large Ursa that clumsily tried to swipe at him.

While he liked to think he had an effective plan in mind, getting to the breach would prove a bit more difficult than he'd originally thought. There were Grimm practically crawling down every single alleyway and even with the effect he was having upon them, that still didn't diminish the veritable wall that they had essentially formed.

There was also the issue of where his sister was at too. While he had confidence in Jeanne and her team, this would no doubt be beyond what they could handle if they were taken too off-guard. But wherever his sister was at, it must clearly be far away from where he was or in some area where a lot of people were gathered since he couldn't locate her with his Aura Vision.

As a big brother, he was worried for the safety of his younger sister. But as a more pragmatic fighter, he was also worried about losing someone that could be a literal pivotal point in this entire battle against Salem. It certainly pained him to think like that, but it was something to still note anyways.

For his sister, once she awakens to her own semblance, could definitely help swing things around if what his friend had said about Jeanne was true… and his friend had no reason to lie.

But firstly, he needs to focus on stopping this breach as soon as possible. Then when things began to settle, he could finally go and look for Jeanne. And his friend did say earlier that he would be going around tending to the safety of the civilians… so perhaps there was a chance he would lend some help to the other combatants too, a thought that lifted Jaune's spirits considerably. Yet still, he worried for his sister.

"Just hold on, sis," he muttered as he kept on running, slaughtering Grimm all the while as he progressed, his very form a blur to all who may have been watching him as he attacked.

Regardless of whatever conflicting emotions and thoughts he may be having, Jaune was certain about one thing as he progressed forward:

It was time to begin fighting back against Salem for real now.

* * *

Ah, how things had all fallen apart. It was all like one big joke except it wasn't funny at all.

It wouldn't be funny to anyone really and especially not to Cinder.

Currently, the half-maiden was all but knee-deep in Grimm and she took out her anger upon the surrounding Boarbatusks with a wave of her hands, flames hot enough to melt metal besieging the Grimm and killing them instantly. Normally, she'd be hesitant to use her acquired power like this out in the open where others could see, but in her current state of mind, this didn't matter much right now.

She was merely happy to have a chance to work off some of the anger she'd been accruing over the past few weeks.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her two 'teammates' splitting up to take on the Grimm that had attempted to surround them. Despite how much more dangerous these Grimm were proving themselves to be, the Beowulves and Ursas ultimately ended up not being too much of a threat to either Mercury or Emerald.

To be fair, Cinder supposed, she had warned them in advance of the sort of power her mentor had over the Grimm so that could be why her two personal henchmen were dealing with this so effectively. Then again, she'd made sure to pick these two up all that time ago for their skill, so perhaps this should've bene expected anyways.

Pausing in her thoughts just long enough to finally draw out her bow and arrows, Cinder took aim at a small Nevermore circling above her and promptly shot it down, the flying Grimm having not seen the attack coming.

Letting out a sigh as she turned around, Cinder did so in time to see her two henchmen tear through the Grimm with a flurry of kicks and slashes, the accuracy of each strike once more speaking of the two's skill levels.

Nonetheless, Cinder found herself hardly wowed by the action and merely took it as something to be expected… especially since, despite her mentor being at the helm, these Grimm still hadn't posed much of a challenge to the three of them.

It would seem that her mentor was intentionally holding back as she sent more Grimm their way. Probably just to help their cover remain intact, Cinder thought.

Thankfully, as Emerald and Mercury finished taking down the surrounding Grimm, there appeared to be a lull in the action directly around them.

This gave Cinder and the two some time to finally talk as they'd been rushed in getting here alongside other students to help suppress the Grimm.

"So what exactly should we do now?" These were the first words directly out of Emerald's mouth as she and Mercury approached Cinder. Cinder was marginally surprised; this was perhaps the first time she'd heard the little thief sound so unsure on what to do. "I mean, officially speaking we're supposed to be aiding the police wherever we can in pushing the Grimm back, but you said that Adam Taurus had gone rogue on us…"

"Do we try and find him and his group or should we just keep focusing on securing our cover?" Mercury then chipped in, sounding much more held together than Emerald. The benefit of being trained since birth to be an assassin, Cinder pondered. At least he wasn't letting whatever doubts he had get to him right now.

But the two made a good point. The original goal had been to try and intercept Adam, but that had honestly been just a pipe-dream. With that damned man's launching of the train, the original plan had been put into action far sooner than she would've liked.

She knew what his plan was. The bull type Faunus had always held a massive grudge against Vale's council, so no doubt the stubborn bastard planned on using this chaos to hunt them down and kill them. But with how oddly the Grimm were behaving thanks to her mentor's control over them, she now had to wonder just how easy of a time Adam and his forces would have in getting to the council members, wherever they may be holed up at right now.

Frankly, her mentor, while she likely saw the White Fang as useful, owed them nothing. It honestly wouldn't surprise Cinder if Salem decided to take out Adam and his group just as they entered the city or when they started getting close to their targets.

Salem could be cruel like that.

But she couldn't count on the woman to aid her in cleaning up her mess. There was absolutely no guarantee that Salem or some other force would swoop in to solve her White Fang problem for her. And while she would hardly be sad over the deaths of the council members, killing them now would only result in increased security that would make achieving her other objectives later on much more difficult.

Still, Mercury raised a good point – they were posing as Haven students and until their cover was no longer needed, they needed to act the part of trainees…

…So a compromise would be needed.

"We'll keep up our little roles, but we will be fanning out into the areas we know the White Fang will likely be in," Cinder said. "If you spot any trace of Adam and his men, give chase. If nothing… then we'll just have to worry about him later."

Mercury and Emerald both nodded firmly, Cinder noting just how glad the two looked to be receiving an order in such a firm tone. It made her smile inwardly, if only a little.

This entire situation may have been turned on its head, but there was just ever so slightly a chance to salvage something out of it. They would just need to be alert and play it by ear.

With their course of action now decided, Cinder turned with her two henchmen at her sides.

As if sensing their meeting was over, the Grimm that had slowly been gathering again in the area began to head for them.

With a grin that was equal parts rage and renewed determination, Cinder split apart her bow to form her blades, ignoring whatever action her two 'teammates' did.

As the Grimm neared, she threw herself upon them.

* * *

Bart was primarily a scholar, a man who engaged more in academic debate and further study rather than sparring and actual combat.

But if people ever doubted his huntsman credentials, their doubts would've been immediately laid to rest as the haggard looking History Professor swept through a small legion of Grimm with all the skill and fury of a true warrior.

His thermos – his weapon, much to the amazement of those who saw it – had been transformed into its true form, that being a large staff-like club for lack of a better way to put it. With its length, the green haired professor easily swept out the legs of more than several Beowulves at once before delivering one strike to each one, thrusting the weapon forward with enough force to pierce through the chests of each Grimm. The thermos that lied at the end he hit them with even spewed forth flames to further make sure that the Grimm would die.

And die they did.

This was a tactic that Bart repeated at random as he dashed down the street, his senses working at their very best to locate any and every enemy around him.

A slight growl reached his ears and he reacted without so much as missing a single step, stabbing through a nearby wall to skewer an Ursa that had been hiding on the other side. He retracted his weapon an instant later, not even having to look to see the large bear-like Grimm disintegrating into nothing behind the wall.

His expression remained devoid of emotion, his eyes, hidden by the light bouncing off his glasses, narrowed into a dangerous gaze as he ran forth at a speed that put his usual walking pace during class to shame. He doubted the few policemen he passed by could even see him.

The entire street now clear of Grimm thanks to his work, he allowed himself the briefest second of satisfaction, but there was still much more to be done.

The street he'd traveled down led to a small plaza that could be considered the starting point of downtown Vale, where a vast majority of stores and stalls were located. And it was here the concentration of Grimm was at its highest.

Bart looked upon the area before him with a heavy heart, seeing blood on walls along with other sights that he'd never let any of his students see if he could do so.

"…The casualties are already this high," he muttered in sadness as he looked upon the unmoving and mauled forms of a number of people, their aura even when locked having not provided them enough protection against the onslaught of Grimm.

Sadness turned to rage just an instant later when a flock of Nevermores flying above all squawked in unison. Looking up fully, Bart counted twenty of them in total, the largest being around the same size as the Nevermore team RWBY had faced in their initiation.

There were plenty of other Grimm in the area too, with several Boarbatusks, as if in response to the Nevermores' cries, came rushing around corners and head directly for Bart in a pincer formation.

He'd have marveled at their intelligence if it didn't terrify him so much. Or if it didn't anger him so much either. It was because of this sudden oddity that so many people have already fallen to the Grimm that were tearing through Vale.

The large Nevermore, clearly the leader of the flock, divebombed in Bart's direction just as the Boarbatusks were rapidly closing in on him. Truly, this would've been a bad spot to be in…

…But he was a professor of Beacon. To him, this was nothing and he decided to prove it.

With surprising strength that didn't suit his lanky frame at all, Bart leapt high into the air, directly towards the Nevermore. With his weapon in hand, he struck forth with a downward swing that connected with the flying Grimm's beck, cracking it as well as knocking it downwards a little.

The Nevermore cried out in what could only be shock and pain and Bart capitalized on it by touching down on the damaged beck and dashing towards its eyes. With one swift motion, he activated his weapon's flamethrower function to burn its left eye and then immediately rammed it into the other eye a split second later.

Pulling the weapon out, Bart leapt off of the Nevermore just as it crashed into the ground below, flattening the Boarbatusks that had been aiming for him just now.

But he wasn't done yet.

Rather than having leapt to the ground below just now, the green haired professor had jumped even higher into the sky, right into the flock of Nevermores that had clearly been awaiting the results of their leader's action just now. If Bart had to guess, they were probably planning on trying to skewer him from the sides had their leader's initial attack succeeded. But that was no longer going to be the case. Empowering his weapon with some of his aura, Bart spun and shot forth his aura-enhanced flames, their reach and the intensity of the flames being far greater than they would have been normally.

The Nevermores all caught fire and squawked in agony as the flames burned them. Immediately, they all tried to move well away from Bart, but this did nothing – the flames had already burned their wings to crisps.

As Bart now fell towards the ground, he watched in silence as the Nevermores fell alongside him, their forms disappearing in midair as the flames quickly finished them off.

With them now no longer a threat, Bart used his remaining time in the air to look around for anyone that might be in need of help, be it fellow combatants such as his students or policemen or noncombatants such as civilians or people too injured to continue fighting.

And sure enough, he saw some people little more than a block away from where he was currently at. A group of civilians if their clothing was anything to go by.

They were surrounded by a small pack of Beowulves, their backs literally up against the wall of a small shop.

In a moment of uncharacteristic rage, Bart swore. He was still here in midair and would take another four seconds to land. By that point, the Beowulves would've already launched themselves upon the group.

He wasn't going to make it in time.

All he could do was just watch from afar just as the Beowulves now dashed forward, their claws already lashing out towards the civilians in question-.

-Only to hit nothing but air.

It literally took Bart the rest of his falling time to comprehend what had just happened. "What?!" he uttered just as he finally touched down.

He began a mad dash towards where the group had been, catapulting over abandoned cars and debris to do so.

Landing close now to where the civilians had been, he looked just in time to see the Beowulves already leaving, confused but clearly already in search of new prey. They'd turned their backs to his general direction just before he'd shown up just now.

The area now clear for the moment, Bart had the time to mentally play back what had just happened.

He'd clearly seen that group of people boxed in by those Beowulves. They literally had nowhere to go and the Beowulves had just been about to attack them…. And then they'd simply vanished before his very eyes with only the slightest of blurs to indicate they'd been moved.

A vaguely black blur…

"What the devil had that been?" he muttered, his grip on his weapon slackening from the sheer shock he was feeling.

There were simply too many things going on and now with this further abnormality by the Grimm and this black blur, it was simply becoming too much for even Bart to try and figure out. The odd waves of Grimm that had destroyed so many villages and towns in the distant past, the recent Dust thefts by the White Fang now stopping out of the blue, the fight between Jaune and his good friend Peter and now this sudden onslaught of Grimm and this blur… the academic side of him instinctively felt that these were all connected somehow, but was at a loss on how to explain it all.

…But he couldn't afford to start dwelling on this now of all times. He could save the thinking for later. For now he just had to keep on pushing back against the Grimm and assist any potential rescue operations as much as possible.

But as he went on the move again, he prayed that the civilians that had vanished just now were safe and sound.

* * *

The blackness silently hummed to itself in bemusement.

Just prior to moving that group of civilians to safety a second ago, it had spotted that green haired professor up in the air. There was a small chance – a _very_ small chance – that the man had spotted it, if only marginally.

Oh well, nothing to be done about that. That being said, having to slow down just prior to grabbing civilians in order to not have its own speed kill them was something of a challenge; it increased the chances of it being seen, even if said increase was small.

Still, this was a necessary action lest it end up accidentally killing the people that it is trying to move to safety.

As things currently stood, however, it had already rescued up to around two hundred civilians in the past few minutes, grabbing them and moving them towards the very edge of Vale that was closest to Beacon. Given that said edge of the city was the furthest away from the breach, this meant that the Grimm had yet to reach it. Some policemen and other forces from Beacon had already turned said spot into a safety zone of sorts, so that further helped ensure the safety of the people it dropped off just outside the zone.

Furthermore, the blackness noted once more that it still retained its authority over the Grimm. However, because Jaune as its Apostle was slowly yet surely growing stronger to take over its 'role' one day, its own authority was weakening in direct proportion to the rate Jaune's authority was growing. As such, it could only make the Grimm freeze up for little more than a fraction of a second due to the discord its authority was creating in opposition to Salem's control.

Not that this was much of a problem – it was too fast for the Grimm to do anything in response anyways.

So now as it dashed through the city once more at high Mach speeds, the blackness kept a keen ear out for anything odd. But more than that, it also kept its own instinctual awareness sharp in case something else were to arise.

And it had the feeling that such a thing would be occurring very soon – it could sense the Fall Maiden rapidly approaching Vale, no doubt in response to its own presence here.

Judging by her current speed, the blackness estimated her arrival in Vale to occur in another thirty seconds… and it looked like the woman was heading directly for it.

This meant that it couldn't afford to be idle. Given how many more civilians were left in the 'danger zones,' the blackness would have to make this quick.

And that's exactly what it then did.

Girding the legs of its physical form, it put on an extra burst of speed, one so intense that the glass of the thankfully now abandoned shops instantly shattered. At a speed of Mach _one hundred and seventy_ , the blackness covered unfathomable amounts of distance as it all but blitzed across a good portion of the city at a speed that most fully trained huntsmen and huntresses could barely even see.

It spotted a wounded man that had managed to retreat to the roof of a small shop. The blackness leapt onto the roof, slowing rapidly just enough to pick up the unaware man and then dashing off.

It heard the sound of a baby crying from down a nearby street, both parents also present and desperately trying to gently shush him before it could attract the Grimms' attention. With surprising grace, the blackness slid towards the spot the family was at and whisked them all up in its arms.

Through its sharp eyesight, it then noticed a woman in her early fifties trying to run from a Boarbatusk further down the street, unknowingly heading towards a dead end alley. So gradually – by its definition of 'gradually' – picking up speed once more after nabbing the unassuming family, the blackness charged forth at a slower speed than before as to avoid harming its still unaware passengers and headed directly for the woman. With an ease that was borderline insulting, it closed the distance between them and literally smashed through the charging Grimm as if it hadn't even been there, reluctantly killing it in order to rescue the woman.

With one swift motion of its left arm, the blackness grabbed the woman and began to skid as it changed direction suddenly.

A wall lied in its new path, but this deterred it not one bit. With just a little bit of its strength, the blackness leapt high into the air at breakneck speed, clearing entire city blocks in a second as it came to a landing nearly two blocks away from the safety zone. It impacted on the ground with a lightness that didn't do its admittedly large body justice, scarcely even scuffing the pavement as it promptly rushed towards the safety zone and finally dropped off the people it had picked up.

The blackness then vanished from sight just as it heard the civilians it had picked up finally notice they were no longer in danger.

From the moment it had begun its rescue just now up until its departure at this exact instance, only one and a quarter seconds had overlapped, a result of having to slow down considerably to avoid the whiplash potentially hurting or killing those people.

The blackness let out something akin to a hum of thought as it dashed away yet again, once more assessing the situation.

With its current speed as well as its physical form's size, it could afford to rescue up to five people per run, possibly six depending on the age and build of each civilian. In theory, it still had about twenty-nine and a half seconds before the Fall Maiden touched ground here in the city and began her hunt for it, which meant it could bring to the safety zone possibly a few dozen more people before she arrived.

In theory, that is.

In practice… not so much. With the group it had rescued just now, this entire part of Vale had now more or less been accounted for. The other parts of Vale still needed to be explored, but said parts were considerably farther away than this district. Even with its speed, covering that much ground and looking for more survivors would take a couple of seconds. And if the maiden happened to find it just as it grabbed hold of some more people, she'd likely assume it was attacking them and strike first.

Ergo…

With its mind made up, the blackness dashed away, nowhere near as quickly as before but still at a speed well beyond what the likes of a trainee could keep up with.

It headed well away from the safety zone and back squarely into the danger zone, moving along until it reached the area with the highest population of Grimm.

If the maiden was going to be seeking it out, then it might as well put the woman to good use in her quest for it.

Just as it arrived in the area, all of the Grimm there seemed to come to a complete stop in what they were doing, literally freezing in place as the blackness' authority interfered with the control Salem was still exerting over them.

The blackness looked all around itself, its red glows for eyes peering off into the distance above in search of the maiden, who now was within Vale airspace, if its sense for her power was truly accurate.

But oddly enough, it still couldn't spot the woman in question. Why-?

Before its unspoken question could be finished, it was answered and with all the force of heaven, it would seem.

The sky above, having been a clear blue even with all of the Nevermores constantly flying around, had suddenly grown dark and cloudy. The instant these storm clouds were formed, lightning bolts poured down from it. Not simply one or two or three lightning bolts, but literally ten times that at the very least.

And all of it was concentrated directly on the area the blackness stood in. And each bolt struck with the intensity of multiple bombs.

Glass shattered. The ground cracked and even outright ruptured. All around the blackness, the Grimm that had frozen up thanks to its mere presence were disintegrated instantly as stray bolts burned right through them.

The very air itself rumbled violently as return strikes then occurred, traveling back to the sky above as the storm clouds began to lighten a little bit.

And through this brief yet powerful display of force, the blackness remained standing.

Unhurt and outright unfazed, the 'Power' gazed upon the maiden as she descended from the sky like the goddess some people believed the maidens to be.

Her maiden power, leaking out of her very eyes in a golden hue locked onto it with an intensity that put the display just now to shame.

Needless to say, this woman… didn't look very happy.

* * *

Peter Port huffed as he swung Blunderbuss out to his right with just one hand, effortlessly decapitating an Ursa that had gotten a little too close for its own good.

As its body fell and slowly disappeared, Peter could only groan. "That makes an even thirty…" he muttered as he kept on walking.

Thirty Grimm. Thirty Grimm he had killed in his brief time here thus far in Vale, the once lovely city currently being torn apart by these foul beasts of darkness.

It was enough to make the fight-happy man's blood boil. Oh, how the Grimm will pay dearly for this travesty.

However…. The actual defending of the city was to be left in the hands of the others – Jaune, his best pal Bart, Glynda, and the various other people that had come along with them – as he had been tasked with something else.

Having been the only one to remain behind on the bullhead that had brought the professors to Vale, Peter had been dropped off much closer to where the breach was at after the flying vehicle had flown all the way around to get to it.

But it wasn't the breach in and of itself that he was to deal with.

Having traveled – and still traveling, it must be said – well past the breaching point, Peter kept an eye out for the ones he'd been sent to take down.

The Goliaths.

Yes, one of the oldest types of Grimm in existence, those massive elephant-like creatures were known not just for their size and strength, but also for their cunning, which had been formed over centuries of survival, of experience. When they had first been spotted by cameras mounted above the walls that kept out the Grimm, the news had been relayed to Ozpin and the headmaster in turn had relayed this news to Peter himself on a private line to his scroll just prior to dropping off the others earlier.

Disposing of the _four_ Goliaths that were steadily making their way to Vale was the task he'd been given to accomplish before all else and it was one that made him now grin in frightening glee. He was most eager to work out the anger he felt over this atrocious event. For there was only so much joy that a huntsman such as himself could derive from killing such small and weak prey… even if they were surprisingly smarter than they'd ever been before.

"Finally, a challenge that's worthy of my full strength!" Peter suddenly roared in equal parts delight and fury, just as he offhandedly shot down a large Nevermore above him with an aura infused bullet that exploded the flying Grimm's entire head on contact.

As the gigantic Grimm fell from the sky and disappeared upon landing just several feet away from him, Peter finally opened his eyes… to reveal irises of a radiant gold.

Aura began to surge from within the very core of his body, making his entire form glow little by little until it was blinding virtually any other Grimm that had tried to approach him.

Peter could only roar in joy, in anger, in challenge as his semblance was now activated in full.

And as he soldiered forth to his _prey_ , his body began to change.

* * *

Jeanne could only cry out for felt like the thousandth time in the past minute.

How chaotic and terrifying the past several minutes had been.

Following the destruction of those bullheads by the Nevermores, she and the other students that had been dropped had then been forced to move out of the way at the very last minute. Due to their placement at the time as well as the sheer size of the ruined vehicles, the numerous teams had therefore been forced to break up to avoid being crushed underneath the rubble.

And that had been when one exceptionally large and fast Nevermore had came swooping down, having grabbed her by her shield arm in the midst of her tumble.

And it was within the grip of this Nevermore's clutches that the blonde leader of team JNPR had been spending the past minute in, the massive bird type Grimm having kept itself seemingly content with a haphazard flight path.

"OhGodohGodohGodohGod….!" The two of them must be more than two hundred meters up in the air and her captor didn't look like it was going to be descending anytime soon. This meant that trying to break free of its grip wasn't the most ideal of options.

But to that same token, remaining as its new prisoner was just as bad.

This was something well-proven in the following instant as the Nevermore made a hard left, nearly jerking her left arm right out of its socket despite her large aura reserves being fairly full still. Jeanne couldn't help but scream in a panic as she felt her grip on her shield slacken from the action and squeezed onto its handle as tightly as she could manage.

The Nevermore made a sudden right, nearly tearing her arm off for good this time as it increased its flying speed. Jeanne felt tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.

Just how was she to get out of this situation?! Thanks to her small stature, this meant her arms weren't long enough for her to lash out with Crocea Mors to cut the damned Grimm's leg and her other hand was so tightly gripping the center of the shield's handle that reaching for its retracting function switch wasn't a safe possibility right now.

Not like the word 'safe' could even be applied to this situation in the first place.

…No! Dammit, she can't afford to dwell on such negative thoughts! She wanted to be a huntress! How can she do so if she's going to panic all the time like this?

But what to do?

Frantically looking around despite being so far up above Vale, the blonde leader could only stare blankly at the clouds…

…And at all of the other Nevermores flying around…

Her blue eyes widened. An idea just came to mind, a most ludicrous one to be precise. But it was either this and possibly succeed or just continue as is and possibly die.

Well, better to die trying than to not try at all, yes?

Her screams ceasing – due to mainly having nearly lost her voice rather than mentally steeling herself – Jeanne tried to grip her shield handle even more tightly than she already was. And then after affirming she had as good a grip as she'll ever get, she began to pull.

Which is to say, she began to pull _herself_ towards the shield rather than the opposite.

Such a thing suddenly made her giggle hysterically. This had to be hands down the craziest pull-up that anyone had ever tried doing in the history of pull-ups.

Thanks to a combination of the Nevermore's speed, wind resistance, and her position right now, pulling herself towards the shield was all but impossible, but even then she forced herself to do so. Her elbow began to bend as she raised herself (could she even call it that?) to her weapon.

Then with a deafening squawk, the Nevermore did a roll in midair in order to change its direction.

Her whole body twisting painfully as a result, Jeanne considered it a miracle that she wasn't too disoriented from the maneuver. But her progress was lost a little bit and she quickly worked to regain it.

The Nevermore now began to slow down, joining the rest of its massive flock as the entire bunch circled around Vale from high above.

Huh, how odd…. And scary, now that she really thought of it. They were acting so calm, forming a kind of air perimeter if she had call it something. But she didn't let this distract her. If anything, this change of events worked to her favor a bit.

With the lowered speed, Jeanne now had a much easier time trying to pull herself up towards her shield. And now her sword arm was within reach of the Nevermore's leg. Hefting Crocea Mors back for a split second, the girl swung with all the force she could muster.

And as it turned out, despite its size, the leg of the Nevermore was surprisingly easy to cut through. And Jeanne ended up cutting through the leg all the way.

A pained squawk was the last thing that filled Jeanne's ears as she began to fall. Fear seized her heart, but she pushed it back as much as she could, just as she wrapped her arms and legs around the severed leg of the Nevermore.

She fell what felt like a good several yards before she ended up smashing right into the head of another Nevermore, this one even larger than the one that had taken her for the 'joyride.' With a grunt of pain, she went tumbling down the Grimm's massive body thanks to the wind resistance, but she'd been counting on this and therefore managed to turn the tumble into a controlled roll that allowed her to get back on her feet.

And so she ran down the Grimm's back until she neared its tail feathers… and promptly jumped.

And boy oh boy, did the ground look so far below her. The sight was enough to make tears return to her eyes. But thankfully for once…. The Grimm were there to be counted on.

Which was to say, landed on.

Arms spread wide, the girl braced for impact as she smashed right into another Nevermore, this one nearly her own size. She grunted and rolled off of the Grimm and landed on another one just several feet below.

And so she repeated this crazy action, literally jumping or just outright falling from one Nevermore to the next as they all seemed okay with just ignoring her for now.

When she was about several dozen yards above ground, Jeanne gulped audibly and braced herself for one final jump of faith. There were no more Nevermores below this level, at least within her line of sight and jumping distance, to rely on so she'd have to make this jump for certain. It was good fortune that the Nevermore she was atop of right now was of a good enough size and just ignorant enough of her to give her the time to brace herself.

With her sword and shield still in hand, Jeanne then leapt from atop the slow moving Grimm.

She'd tried aiming for the buildings, which were substantially closer to her than the ground. She just hoped that this difference in height would therefore make a difference in her landing state.

But even then…

In freefall, she tried to focus on remaining in one position, almost curling up as if laying down in bed. She placed her shield below her so that it would take the brunt of her landing and channeled as much of her aura into it as possible…

…Just in time for her landing.

And what a landing it was.

Pain made its presence very well known to her as her body impacted against the cold hard roof of some large building. Even with her shield visibly absorbing most of the force for her, it still hurt like crazy.

And to her surprise, she ended up bouncing like some kind of stone across a body of water, though unlike such a peaceful sounding scenario, she made small impact craters with every 'skip' she made. It wasn't until she had all but bounced off the roof and onto roof of another lower leveled building next door that she finally came to a stop.

Gasping in pain upon landing face-first, Jeanne slowly rolled so that she could stare back up into the sky just in time to see more than a dozen Nevermores circling over this particular area.

As her large aura reserves went to work in healing the bruises she no doubt got from her fall, the girl couldn't help but laugh like a little kid… or like a lunatic. Her idea had worked. Who'd have thunk?!

"Who the hell is this?!"

Her laughter was cut short upon the sound of a voice that didn't sound very friendly. It was also at around this exact second that she'd finally managed to roll over and slowly start standing up-.

-Just in time to see several people pointing some very large guns at her. People dressed in white Grimm-inspired masks.

Her mind, tired and disoriented, immediately cleared up and her body stiffened automatically in fright.

"It doesn't matter who she is…" spoke the man that appeared to be leading the group. He was much taller than Jeanne and dressed mainly in black though his outfit had some red in too. Judging by the horns atop his head, he appeared to be a bull type Faunus.

The man's grip on the hilt of his sword tightened a little as said weapon was slowly drawn, the graceful movement and sound of it managing to somehow captivate Jeanne.

This did little to take away from the anger and disgust that was present in the lower half of the man's face.

"What does matter…" spoke Adam Taurus, though Jeanne didn't know his name," is getting rid of this new pest right now."

The last thing the girl's mind was capable of processing was the sound of the sword being swung.

* * *

 **Whoa, didn't expect this chapter to be a little over 8,000 words long! Heh, to think I'd been aiming to keep this a little short, ha ha. Oh well. I suppose this actually works to my favor.**

 **Well, there you have it, everyone – a sort of set up to the action that will soon be coming! And I plan to put in quite a bit of action during the events of the Breach! Hope you all enjoy what else that I have planned next!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	25. Chapter 25

H-Holy S-! For the past few chapters, I've forgotten to even look at this fic's stats and now that I've finally remembered to look… I'm just blown away!

872 favorites and 1,058 follows as of this writing! Holy shit, never would I have imagined the numbers ever reaching this high! Seriously, I love you guys! And I'm happy that you all seem to be enjoying the fic so far as well. I'll keep on doing my best to make sure that the quality never falls!

Not much else to say beyond a resounding THANK YOU!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 25

In mid-movement, Jaune could only pause.

For in the midst of an attack, he had suddenly sensed something wrong. Something wrong enough – if such a word can even apply to this situation – to make him divert his attention away from the Grimm around him.

"Jeanne?" he muttered before even he knew what else to think.

But before he could ponder this any further, an Ursa feebly roared as it tried to attack him, causing the blond man to focus back on the matter at hand.

With a flash of genuine anger suddenly welling up from within him, Jaune turned to face the clumsy Grimm just as it tried to swipe at him. But with a simple catch of its arm, Jaune twisted the limb until it broke with ease. Then when it screamed with pain, he simply shot forth his other fist and reduced its entire head into little more than mulch.

As the Ursa's body promptly began to dissolve into nothing, Jaune let out an uncharacteristic growl, a mixture of emotions racing through his very being.

It's been little over a minute since he'd arrived to the breach point and it had been with some surprise on his part to see team RWBY frantically trying to fight their way out of the fray without any of their weapons.

Thankfully, his appearance onto the scene had aided them significantly since his presence had already begun to partially destabilize the mental states of the surrounding and ever oncoming Grimm, enough to allow the all-girl team to better get their bearings and fight off the now far more easier-to-deal-with Grimm.

On a random side note, he had to say that they've come along fairly well so fair in their unarmed skills; if this had been them from before his classes, they would've already likely been mauled to death by Beowulves. Well except for maybe Yang thanks to her own fighting style, though she would've been much more hard-pressed than before thanks to the lack of her weapons.

However, things weren't quite letting up just yet. While his growing authority was messing with Salem's own over the Grimm nearby, that still didn't change their numbers nor did it lessen their ferocity once they recovered from the effect his presence was having on them.

This was shown through his Aura Vision as one Beowulf in particularly went for a mad lunge at the normally quiet Blake, who promptly used her semblance to let a clone take the hit before following up with a practiced roundhouse kick that knocked the wolf-based Grimm away.

Speaking of which…

"Knock it off!" Jaune couldn't help but somewhat yell in oddly growing rage when a Boarbatusk tried to ram him from his right. Moving in between its tusks, he lashed out with an open palm strike that pierced directly through its left eye. Thanks to its own momentum, it wasn't until Jaune's arm was nearly buried up to the elbow in its skull before the now dead Grimm dissipated.

Only for nearly a dozen more Grimm to now take its place in the form of a small flock of Nevermores from above.

From somewhere behind him, someone cried out: "Look out!" Ruby, from the sounds of it.

Jaune supposed the young silver eyed girl had some right to utter such words despite her own predicament, for just as soon as she yelled out her warning, a Nevermore roughly half his own size came divebombing towards the ground only to then slowly pull up as it neared. This placed at roughly the same level as his head, its beak 'looking' ominously sharp through his Aura Vision, its form lit up by all of the aura traces left from Vale's population.

The damned thing intended on impaling him. A shame such a thing wouldn't work. And oh how darkly entertaining it was for Jaune to promptly dodge the sharp beak as it neared, outright ducking in time for the large Nevermore to start passing over him. But he wasn't going to simply let the Grimm go.

As he lacked any ranged attacks, he would have to figure out a way to get to the other Nevermores up above, after all. So without any further thought, Jaune abruptly reached out with both hands and grabbed a firm hold of the Nevermore's left wing. He tugged hard and ripped off the entire wing with complete ease.

Ignoring the pained death-cry the Nevermore let out before the pain and shock overtook it, Jaune tore a number of the razor sharp feathers the wing had and took them in between his fingers. He didn't have much time to do this – the Nevermore was now going to begin dissipating any second now and once that happened, the feathers would disappear too.

So looking up and taking stock of the other Nevermores' flight paths, he grunted as he then threw all of the feathers he had just grabbed. He watched for all of a split second before each one then made contact with their targets, that being the heads of the Nevermores. It was then with a victorious smirk that he watched as the entire flock now began to fall out of the sky, the feathers having pierced right through the skulls.

However, he wasn't out of danger just yet.

The Grimm were slowly yet surely beginning to move with the same level of purpose again towards him. If he had to hazard a guess why, it was likely because Salem must be slowly increasing her level of influence over them, overriding his authority just by a little bit.

It would certainly explain the otherwise inexplicable flanking maneuver that a few Beowulves now began to try on him.

But he wasn't about to let this sudden change of events – assuming this was the case – slow him down.

With a light jump, he easily went right over the nearest of the Beowulves, kicking at it in midair with just enough force to send it smashing into the other ones. Then as he landed, he flipped to avoid a charge from a noticeably large Boarbatusk that had just arrived through the breach.

Without another sound, Jaune then immediately ran over to team RWBY, seeing through his Aura Vision that they were once more being surrounded and packed in ever more tightly. He even saw Weiss take a nasty hit to her leg from a low moving Beowulf.

"Are you all holding up okay?" he asked them as he waste no time moving to their side, barreling right through the pack of Grimm that had appeared all around them.

"We've – seen – better – days!" Yang quipped rather slowly as she threw slow yet heavy punches at a massive Ursa that was trying to overwhelm her with its sheer size. With each punch she landed, the bear-type Grimm was knocked further and further back yet refused to be actually knocked down.

A quick leap overhead followed by an elbow to its jaw immediately rectified that on Jaune's part, the blind young man feeling the Ursa's jaw outright break under the blow he dealt.

"I can tell…" he muttered in response to Yang's words right as he landed beside her, then throwing out a stomp to the downed Ursa that smashed right through its torso, killing it instantly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yang do a full-bodied flinch.

His sudden bout of anger now came to an end and was immediately replaced with worry. He could tell by the way their aura was dimming and outright disappearing that the team had taken some nasty hits so far. If this kept up, all of them would quickly be running on zero aura and would therefore be far more susceptible to grave injury.

Well, like hell he'd let that happen on his watch.

Stepping forth, he proceeded to essentially run laps around team RWBY, acting as a moving barrier between them and the small group of Grimm that tried to get at them. But this was far from efficient, he had to instantly admit; he couldn't stop every attack that would surely come their way nor could he efficiently doll out attacks of his own whilst on the move in such a small amount of space. As it is, he'd have to be careful not to bump into the girls themselves.

Nonetheless, he had to do something. But that aside… "Where are your weapons?!" he asked of them as he somewhat frantically tried to keep all of the Grimm at bay as he threw out simple jabs at random to knock them back. He was partially successful in this endeavor as some of his hits landed and knocked the Grimm it struck back while the rest missed by varying margins. Some of the Grimm pressed onwards and tried to claw away at him, but his authority was still working somewhat as he could detect them slowing ever so slightly in their movements.

"The Grimm actually knocked them all away!" Ruby cried out, her voice filled with nothing but amazement and even horror.

Her words were enough to make Jaune click his tongue as he now came to a stop, filling a little dizzy from the circle he'd been running in. Damn, so much for that idea. At least he'd bought the girls several seconds of reprieve. It was evidently enough to make a difference, for Weiss had used the time to create a glyph several yards away that started to pull back a few Beowulves.

"Damn… did they at least knock your weapons somewhere close by?" he asked of the girls.

"They took them to somewhere a few blocks over!" Surprisingly, Blake had been the one to answer his question. And here he thought that she hadn't quite liked his presence… oh wait, she still didn't – he could see through his Aura Vision that her body was a little tenser than it had been before his closer proximity to her.

He sure hoped that her instinctive 'dislike' of him wouldn't impact her combat performance. With this many Grimm still around, it'd only end up working against her. Thankfully though, the waves of Grimm seemed to slowly be coming to an end with fewer and fewer of them appearing by the minute.

That aside, he still needed to do something about the Grimm in this area. With this many still around here, sealing up the breach in relative peace would remain an unlikely option. But at the same time, he couldn't afford to leave team RWBY without their weapons either; while they were certainly doing much better unarmed than they likely would've a few weeks back, they were still at a massive disadvantage due to how reliant their fighting styles were on their equipment.

A plan would be needed…

Briefly taking a minute to charge forward and confront the Grimm, Jaune finally came up with something as he dodged a claw from a Beowulf and retaliated with a vicious low kick to its knees, breaking them like twigs. "Ruby! Weiss! Both of you go and find your weapons! Don't stop for anything until you get them!" he suddenly yelled. He took another step forward, boldly confronting a small Ursa that stood up on its hind legs to attack. He stopped it before it could even do anything, grabbing it by the throat, hefting it up and then choke-slamming it onto two other Ursas that had been coming up from behind it. "Blake! Yang! You two are with me! We're going to split up all of these Grimm and push them back!"

"Right!" all four of the girls said in unison. Their lack of hesitation in their response made him crack a small smile. Then the smile disappeared as he suddenly reached out and grabbed the tusks of a humongous Boarbatusk that had remained in the back of the group until now. It was very heavy, much more so than any of the other Grimm he'd tore his way through thus far today, but not heavy enough to pose a problem. Hoisting it up into the air, Jaune turned and threw it in the direction Ruby and Weiss had started to run off in, the Boarbatusk's huge form impacting against the five fairly small Ursas that had tried to intercept the R and W of team RWBY.

Watching for half a second as Ruby and Weiss made it past the knocked down Ursas without a hassle, he pivoted back around to deal with the remainder of the Grimm. He noted that they'd stopped attacking as much now, all but sensing them trying to hang back and analyze the situation.

He couldn't allow that. And he wasn't about to let himself handle this task alone.

"Yang, knock back that large Beowulf!" he suddenly commanded.

The blonde brawler was quick to carry out said command, dashing forward and delivering the mother of all haymakers to the unsuspecting Beowulf in question. As her bare fist connected with its side, the Beowulf was launched several feet to its right and it went crashing into the wall of a nearby building that had been teetering on the verge of collapse. The subsequent crash had been the last straw and what had once been a simple department store proceeded to fall in on itself, sending stone and wood and dust flying everywhere.

This happened to include where they were fighting and the dust that now briefly coated the battleground proved thick enough to evidently blind the Grimm, if their confused howls and roars were anything to go by.

But to Jaune, who saw by aura, this proved no problem. Nor would it prove much of a problem either to Blake.

"Blake, if you would be so kind… aim for the back of the legs of that Ursa!" he then said.

The B of team RWBY dashed forward without so much as a grunt of acknowledgement and proceeded to slide low across the ground, going right in between the legs of an Ursa that was currently standing on its hind legs, the Grimm likely trying to see if it was possible to spot them if its head was up high enough above the dust cloud. Just when it had appeared to nearly spot him, Blake struck with her feet as hard as she could and Jaune watched as the Ursa, already a clumsy type of Grimm, stumbled and fell forward, its balance thrown off when Blake struck the legs just now.

But that alone wouldn't have been enough to deal with the massive Grimm, so just as it began to fall forward, Jaune went up to meet it. Then he grabbed hold of its arm and judo-tossed the Grimm right on top of a crouching Beowulf that had been unable to keep up with Jaune's speed.

Grunting slightly in exertion as he slammed the Ursa down, Jaune was rewarded with a near deafening crash that immediately killed the Ursa and the Beowulf it had landed on in addition to dispersing the dust cloud and cratering the ground.

This also ended up naturally alerting the remainder of the Grimm to his location, but during these brief few seconds, Yang hadn't simply been standing idle. She'd merely been waiting for a target to attack.

The instant he felt the dust cloud disperse, Jaune spotted the blonde kick another Beowulf with full force in its gut before delivering a powerful punch that cracked the white mask-like mass on its face.

He hummed slightly in acknowledgement of this. With just a few key commands, it looks like they've already made a bit of a difference here. But they couldn't afford to take things too light still.

So without another word uttered, Jaune leapt once more into the fray.

* * *

Adam hadn't quite appreciated the fact that some blonde girl had just come falling from the sky a moment ago. Less so when one of his men had ended up alerting said girl to their presence by demanding to know who she was.

On the outside he might have played it cool, but on the inside he'd been fuming a bit. The girl clearly hadn't known they'd even been there up until her attention had been grabbed by the man's sudden words.

But he supposed it honestly hadn't made much of a difference; he'd been intending on killing the girl the second he saw her since he didn't want to take any additional risks.

It's why he'd wasted no time in drawing his sword and swinging it directly at her neck with all of his strength just now…

…Only for his decisive strike to have been blocked just as it had been just few inches away from the blonde's delicate neck.

And by what looked like some kind of thermos of all things.

With a grunt of frustration, Adam withdrew his sword and backed up a bit. From beside him, he could hear his group audibly tense up. They hadn't noticed the new arrival's presence until just now, it would seem.

And what an odd looking person the new person was as the man stepped forward from behind the all but frozen blonde. He looked like a disheveled salaryman with a lanky physique and messy hair and glasses to match.

Adam's grip on his blade shifted a little, ready to swing without a single instance of hesitation.

But then the man spoke. "White Fang… I see. To think you'd use this ongoing tragedy to continue your own equally tragic agenda," muttered the odd green haired man.

"D-Doctor Oobleck…" the blonde girl now said, her voice little more than a whisper. Whether this was because of her close call with death just nor or simply fatigue was unknown to Adam, not that he really cared.

"Ah, Ms. Arc. Looks like I'd stepped in just in time," spoke the man – Oobleck – as he oh so lightly turned his gaze to eye the girl. "…Go. Get out of here. I feel these people aren't too keen on talking things out."

And now it was time for Adam to quickly glance at his own forces too. Of all the people that had come with him into Vale, virtually all of them were tightening their grips dangerously on their own weapons, their stances shifting into full on combat stances.

Looking back, Adam saw the girl look ready to protest, but a stern gaze from this Oobleck guy was enough to make her apparently reconsider. Then without another word, the girl simply stumbled as she turned around and ran off.

Leaving Adam and his men with this Oobleck character.

"…You didn't attempt to attack her as she left. Thank you for that," Oobleck said as he hefted his own weapon now.

Indeed, Adam didn't. He could've, however. He could've easily just lashed out just as the girl turned her back to him and cut open her shoulders, but he hadn't done so. Nor did his own forces bother to fire at the girl as she ran off either.

The reason why they'd held their ground was simple: this man before them was too dangerous to fully take their focus off of.

But Adam wasn't about to let his newfound worry show. "Hmph, don't think I did so out of some kind of mercy. Following through on another strike simply would've been a hassle, but we will take care of her later."

The man standing before now shift subtly, causing all of Adam's forces to tense up even more, ready to fire at his orders. The only reason why they haven't done so already is because something about this man simply screamed danger.

"You know," spoke Oobleck suddenly as he hefted his odd looking weapon. "I've studied your group extensively over the years. The 'old' White Fang has nothing but respect from me. I even took part in some of the protests they did. To hate one another over what amounts to extra body parts… it's something that honestly saddens me."

"If you think flattery will keep us from taking you out, then you're in for a rude awakening," spoke Adam in response. He cared not for what this man said. All that mattered was that he was a threat and was directly before them, stalling them in achieving their goal, not that the man knew what their goal even was right now. Adam readied Wilt. "Now feel the fury of the 'new' White Fan-."

He didn't even get to finish his final sentence when the lanky man made his move.

Faster than he'd have expected, Oobleck had already closed the gap between them, swinging his odd club-like weapon directly at his mask. He was too close for him to draw his blade, so Adam had to settle for blocking the strike with his blade still in the sheath.

He grunted and tensed up as Oobleck's weapon impacted against Blush. The man was much stronger than he looked. But there was more to battle than just strength alone. So after blocking the blow, Adam withdrew his arms and attempted to slam his sword's hilt into the man's stomach.

Only to hit nothing but air.

"What?!" he uttered in a low voice. Hearing movement to his right, he turned and looked just in time to see Oobleck move onto another rooftop nearby. He couldn't help but tsk. The man was insanely fast. "Open fire!" he ordered.

And then gunfire erupted from practically all around him as his soldiers obeyed his simple command. Armed with modified assault rifles that could also launch a few grenades as well, the small group he had at his command shot round after round at the lanky man, only to fail to so much as graze him.

Adam remained where he was at, watching as Oobleck raced across the rooftop and leaping onto another one, avoiding the hail of bullets with seeming ease, something that infuriated Adam.

His group now began to march forward across the roof they were currently on, passing up Adam and spreading out as they tried to box the oddly dressed man in.

And when this appeared to be working, Adam finally made his next move.

Dashing forward, he girded himself and jumped with moderate force towards Oobleck. When he neared, he finally performed his infamous iai technique, withdrawing his blade and slashing faster than the human eye could normally see.

But this man could apparently see the attack coming quite well, for Oobleck swiftly moved his head back to avoid what would've been a dangerous hit to the neck, aura or no aura.

A follow up attack from Adam forced the man back even more, allowing Adam to land safely on the roof and begin an assault in earnest.

Keeping his blade full drawn, he swung it several times with as much speed as he could muster, trying to aim for his opponent's limbs and neck. But to his ever quickly growing rage, the green haired man swiftly dodged each strike and then returned the favor with a few strikes of his own.

Grunting, Adam felt the initial attack graze him along his right arm, nearly making him drop his weapon. But he held strong and redirected his blade to deflect the next strike. And the next one and then the one after that.

Just like that, he'd suddenly been forced onto the defensive. So fast and furious were the sudden flurry of attacks coming from the lanky man that Adam couldn't even actually see what form the blows were in. All he could see were blurs and nothing more.

With gritted teeth, Adam instantly realized that engaging in close quarters wasn't going to end well for him, so without another second to spar, he immediately skipped back a few feet, switching his sheath into its gun form and firing four quick rounds.

Four quick rounds that were ultimately proven useless as Oobleck simply swung his club-like weapon and knocked away each bullet.

That was when some help finally came to Adam as his men appeared to either side of Oobleck and began firing once more. Oobleck, having been in the process of stomping forward to close the distance between him and Adam, was forced back to avoid the barrage of bullets that had all but appeared right before his eyes.

And then Oobleck suddenly switched gears, leaping towards the gunman that lied to Adam's far right and elbowing him hard in the jaw. Adam could actually hear the bone fracture from the hit and could only watch as the man went sailing off the rooftop and onto the street below. It proved to mercifully be a short drop from the glimpse Adam caught.

But at the same time Oobleck had physically struck the man, he'd also pointed his weapon at the exact same time towards the other flanking gunman and before Adam could so much as issue a warning, flames shot out from the thermos and reached the now terrified gunman just as he coincidentally ran out of bullets.

Adam watched in shock as the second gunman caught fire and began to scream and flail around. The last thing the bull type Faunus saw of the gunman was him stopping and rolling along the ground for that was when Oobleck redirected his attention once more to him.

The lanky man charging at him with that same impossible-to-see speed, Adam was forced to jump back onto a different rooftop to avoid being knocked off to the ground below. But Oobleck followed right after him, the momentum he built up so quickly allowing him to reach Adam in mid-jump.

But he'd managed to execute another iai attack just as he saw Oobleck swing that weapon of his and the two weapons clashed for the briefest of seconds in mid-air, sparks flying for several feet as metal met metal.

In this one exchange, Adam's own strength and speed proved to be able to partially overcome the pure momentum Oobleck had put into his own attack and successfully knocked the man back. As Adam safely landed, he hoped the man would crash into the wall of the building and fall harshly to the ground below. But this didn't happen. Instead, he watched as Oobleck flipped around and touched the wall feet-first, kicking off of it.

But rather than engage Adam again, Oobleck went sailing well over his head.

He was going directly for the rest of his men.

As this realization hit him like a brick, Adam swiveled and took aim with Blush as Oobleck nearly reached the position of the other White Fang members. Locking on, Adam opened fire.

But by then, it was too late. Oobleck landed and all but blurred out of Adam's eyes. All he could see were his men being knocked literally into and through the air like pins at a bowling alley, all of them crying out in varying degrees of pain as their guns were destroyed before being struck.

Adam, growing ever more enraged by the minute, sheathed his blade and began to tap into his semblance. The red highlights on his clothes and hair began to glow ominously as an all too familiar sensation of pure power filled his very being.

Oh how quickly things had begun to fall apart. He'd landed in Vale with a plan in mind and with the small army to carry it out, but before they could have reached the point to split up and begin hunting down the council members in full, that damned girl just had to drop out of nowhere and stall them just long enough for this man to make an appearance.

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Adam's rage grew even more, which in turn fueled his charging as well and rapidly so. While the strike that he would unleash would be inferior to the one he had used on that Spider Tank right before… _she_ … had left him, it should still prove more than sufficient in dealing with this green haired man.

His charging reaching what he deemed to be an acceptable point, Adam took a deep breath… and then swung.

A wave of unfiltered power erupted from his blade as it audibly sliced through the air, the wave momentarily dyeing the entire air itself briefly crimson red. It traveled at lightning speed towards Oobleck's location and _obliterated_ the entire rooftop upon striking it, traveling onwards and slicing through two tall buildings that lied on the other side of the street.

As the wave of power now began to die down, so too did the glow in Adam's red highlights as the man slowly sheathed his sword and waited for a few seconds to see the aftermath of his strike in full.

Those few seconds stretched on into a full minute and as some of his men groaned and slowly began to get back up from where they'd been knocked to, Adam finally began to allow himself an instance of satisfaction.

He'd nailed that bastard.

Or so he thought, when he heard movement from his left.

With wide eyes hidden by his signature mask, he turned his head just in time to see Oobleck's club merely inches away from his face.

And then his world erupted in pain as the blow struck true.

* * *

As her feet gently touched the torn up ground below, Amber gripped her staff tightly and continued to glare at the entity before her, the one who she'd been sensing all this time.

And now that she was on the ground and standing just several feet away from it, she must say that it was fairly large.

As the entity now seemed to stand its full height of eight foot ten, she surveyed its form. It was humanoid in appearance and incredibly muscular despite its overall slim figure for its size. Its skin was pitch black, blacker than any of the other Grimm she'd ever seen, though it lacked any of the white bone-like substance that Grimm normally had. Instead, it seemed to have only a few red markings on its body, specifically its upper chest and the sides of its shoulders.

But what grabbed her attention the most was its head. It seemed only vaguely human in shape, but at the same time it curved a little outwards, giving it a quality that only marginally made it look draconic. Or wolfish. Or gargoyleish. Or… honestly, Amber couldn't tell. Trying to pinpoint the exact animal-like characteristic it had was impossible; it just seemed to somehow have a bit of everything despite its vague shape.

In fact, the longer she seemed to look at its face, its eyes nothing more than large red glows, the more she seemed to feel disoriented in turn.

The maiden immediately shook her head almost violently just as she felt herself fall into an odd trance-like state. Apparently looking at this thing's face can cause some kind of mental effect.

Then she took up a combat stance, gripping her staff in both hands just as she skipped back a few extra feet, wary of the entity's height and greater reach. She was already coming up with something of a plan in her head – attack from ground level a little, get a feel for its full capabilities and then attack from high and afar depending on what she learned.

Nonetheless, in spite of this plan, she kept her power as the Fall Maiden active, feeling an all too familiar warmth flood her entire being, strengthening her in a manner akin to how actively using aura can enhance one's physical abilities.

The entity didn't attack, didn't even move from where it was at. It just seemed to patiently wait for her to do something. Feelings its red glows for eyes locking onto her intensely, Amber readied to attack-.

-Only to be interrupted by the most shocking of things.

The damned thing _spoke_. Physically spoke.

A mouth that hadn't been there on its face before simply appeared, opening up to reveal large and sharp teeth not unlike that of a shark.

" **Maiden,"** it began suddenly, its voice far deeper than any human's and carrying a level of power that would've made Amber freeze in place if the fact it was speaking at all hadn't done so. It raised one arm in a nonthreatening manner. Idly, Amber couldn't help but notice the spike it had popping out of where the elbow joint was at. **"I do not wish to battle with you at all. I am here to help."**

Its words were said calmly, too calmly for Amber's opinion. And somehow it was enough to make her start moving again.

Moving again to attack, that is.

With incredible speed, Amber dashed towards the entity that was Grimm-like yet not simultaneously. As she neared, she leapt and swung her staff with all her might. The attacking end of it smashed hard against the side of the entity's face, hard enough that it made a shockwave that blew away part of the ground beside it.

But the entity remained seemingly unfazed even as the strike turned its head.

" **I understand your feelings towards me. And I apologize if my actions much earlier today had irritated you-,"** it said before Amber attacked again. Enhancing her weapon with her aura, she jabbed it into the entity's stomach.

This time, there was a bit of a reaction. While her blow failed to so much as pierce an inch of its body, the attack successfully sent it skidding back a few feet, its body lurching a little in the process.

But the entity just kept on speaking. **"-But I had my reasons for doing so. I wish for-."**

Amber didn't give it time to continue yet again. A part of her mind felt like screaming at her to act rationally, to at least hear out what this thing had to say if only because it had yet to so much as react defensively to her. This same part of her mind wished to try and locate that power-stealing thief as well, who she knew for sure was at least an actual active threat.

But this rational part of her went ignored. Instead all that most of Amber's mind was focused on the impossible fact that this creature – this powerful and very much unknown yet dangerous creature – was capable of intelligent speech. Who knew just what else it could do then? Who knew how it could apply this intelligence of its own?

But there was more to her sudden assault than just this. That same rational part of her mind that was being stifled could feel it. Literally feel it; her maiden power was somehow acting on its own to an extent, influencing a good portion of her mind and body to move, to attack, to _kill_ this thing before her very eyes.

Why? Why was her own damned power acting this way? How could it even remotely act this way?

Regardless of the answer, whatever it may be, her body all but acted on its and continued her assault.

Strike after strike was let loose, hitting the entity all over its body from its shins to its neck. Infused with ever increasing amounts of her aura and even her maiden power, the strikes were eventually able to push back the unknown creature even more.

Yet it would seem to still remain unharmed.

What's more, whatever it had been saying before had gone unnoticed by her rational mind as it had been too busy trying to rein herself in. And now it merely surveyed her in intrigue.

"… **I see,"** the thing suddenly spoke. It let out a sound that was probably a hum, but was far too deep to be a human one; the debris on the ground closest to it even shook a little from the sheer force of it. **"The power he gave you truly does seem to retain at least some of his memories and feelings… that is why you're being so hostile."**

The thing sounded… sorrowful? Why?

Then it suddenly disappeared from her line of sight just as one more attack had just been about to be delivered to it. She looked to the ground to see a huge shadow looming over her from behind and her body once more responded on its own, pivoting to face the creature yet again.

Only to find its right hand lifted to her head level, its index finger being held back by its thumb. And then it _flicked_ her right in her forehead.

Her vision immediately went black for a moment, thought becoming an impossible thing during this short timeframe. Eventually her vision restored itself and she was able to think.

She tried to move, but stopped as pain wracked her entire body. Not to mention that it felt as if something was somehow weighing her down.

And as it turned out, this actually was the case. Feeling as if she was lying back at an angle, Amber looked down to see her body partially buried underneath rubble.

"W-What…?" she muttered, more like slurred out. Becoming alert now, she looked around to see what had once been a building, some kind of small shop to be more precise, with various articles of underwear and bras lying all around her.

Seeing this, she couldn't help but laugh a little in pure disbelief. She, a maiden, had been knocked into a god damned lingerie store.

But her disbelief was two-fold. Her new location was merely one thing that had brought about her sudden laughter. But the second cause for her laughter was as she now looked forward through the hole she'd made on her crash here.

Or rather, through the multiple holes, so many that she couldn't even see where she'd once been at. But she'd become a good judge of distance during her travels alone, allowing her to accurately estimate how much ground she's covered even if she'd been otherwise unconscious.

And what this sense of distance was now telling her boggled her mind.

That creature had just, with a finger flick, knocked her through two entire city blocks!

And now that very same creature was approaching her, its massive form walking with deceptively light steps through the many holes it made.

Then its form blurred out of sight for an instant and reappeared only a few yards away from her downed form.

" **It would seem your power has calmed down somewhat. Now please, listen truly. I wish for your help on something-."** It was once more cut off.

The very second it had closed the distance like that, Amber felt her Fall Maiden power flare up once again, her mind feeling a compulsion to attack yet again.

And attack, she did but not with her staff this time.

Instead, tapping directly into her maiden power itself, Amber summoned a powerful gust of wind that tore up the entire lingerie shop as if it were made out of wet tissue. Not even the other stores directly around the shop were sparred, flattened within a split second.

As for the mysterious talking entity, it was actually finally lifted off of its feet and thrown out to the street. It landed on its back hard, cratering the ground but it rolled with an unnatural grace backwards so that it ended up in a crouching position.

Amber used her power to levitate ten meters into the sky, which allowed her to see that the creature had two additional spikes on its upper back that curved upwards. Good thing she'd seen that because had she followed through on her rush towards it, it might've tried putting those spikes to good use.

So instead, she opted to keep her distance and commanded the powerful wind she'd created to circulate directly around her foe.

Foe? Was that really the right word? Her mind was beginning to feel clouded now, more so than it had a minute ago.

Shaking her head, she now narrowed her eyes as power poured out from around them. With nothing more than a gesture and pure willpower, storm clouds reappeared in the sky above far above, bringing with it thunder that roared all across Vale.

And with the thunder… came the lightning.

The lightning storm she'd generated earlier to wipe out the Grimm and grab this thing's attention had been but only a taste of her power.

And now she was putting all she had into this.

A multitude of lightning bolts that couldn't be counted poured from the clouds above directly towards the localized tornado she'd just made. And with her will directing them, she made sure that as they neared the tornado, they'd be pulled directly into the wind itself.

The tornado expanded in size, tearing apart other thankfully empty buildings in the process, to try and accommodate the torrent of lightning it was receiving. Even Amber herself had to further retreat to avoid being dragged into her own creation.

But she succeeded in what she had set out to do: she'd gone and made a _lightning tornado_.

With a grunt of pure effort, she forced the tornado to shrink in size, compressing around that enigmatic creature. Holding it closed for a moment, with the lightning bolts still bouncing around wildly within the wind, Amber waited until it had finally reached a bursting point… and then she let it all out.

The lightning tornado that she'd suddenly managed to compress into a pseudo-dome now lost its form completely, blasting upwards to the sky as it dispersed violently, with the lightning she'd combined with it shooting all over the city. Thankfully, due to how far out she and this creature were, the only ones that would be unfortunate to be hit by the lightning would be structures and the rampant Grimm.

Amber felt a smile threatening to split her face appear. Surely, that must have heavily damaged that entity – shit, no it didn't.

As the debris and dust cloud came to an end, she could see the entity stand up slowly, displaying no difficulty in doing so. It didn't even look like it had suffered any real damage.

No, wait – she could see some scratches on its body… and now they just faded away.

Then she felt its eyes on her and she had to do her best to keep from shivering uncontrollably. It wasn't the same intrigued stare of before, but rather something else. Not quite anger, not even annoyance, but definitely no longer something peaceful.

But whatever said emotion ultimately was, Amber felt it would do the thing no good, not when she was now levitating ever higher into the air. She was now around a hundred and twenty meters up in the air and backing away, trying to plan out her next move-.

And that was when the thing appeared right before her very eyes. With just one simple jump that she'd just barely managed to glimpse, it had matched her altitude.

Its left fist was reared back. Seeing this, Amber raised her staff to guard in advance. She tensed her entire body, pouring as much aura as she could into both her weapon and herself in order to bolster their durability.

That had been when it punched her square in the gut.

She didn't know how, but she'd somehow been able to retain her consciousness even as it felt like a mountain just rammed into her at twenty miles per hour.

Towards the city she flew, her entire stomach feeling as if it had been knocked right out of her body. The punch had packed megatons worth of power in it and her entire body, not just her gut, was feeling it even as she rocketed into the ground.

Groaning out some choice words, Amber could only scarcely notice when the ground rumbled a second after her landing. The entity had followed after her, it would seem, if only judging by how her ability to sense it was blaring in her mind.

Disoriented and in incredible pain, it took all the maiden had just to turn over and begin standing up. And it was only now as she began to recover that she finally realized that she and the being weren't alone here in this particular spot.

She knew this even before looking up as a gasp filled her ears.

An odd sensation overcame her as soon as she heard that gasp, her entire body twitching in a way as if to move well away from the source. And now looking up to see said source, Amber saw that two young girls carrying a small assortment of weapons standing little more than several yards away.

One of them was a girl dressed in white with icy blue eyes. The other was an even younger girl dressed in black and red.

And with silver eyes.

* * *

Miles away from the breached wall of Vale, the four Goliaths marched on with neither rush or lethargy, their huge legs moving forth at a steady pace.

The behemoth sized Grimm huffed every now and then in a display that could possibly be mistaken for a sense of annoyance.

Their fellow Grimm, ranging from Beowulves to Nevermores, had long since gone ahead, leaving the four of them behind to slowly catch up. It was certainly an odd kind of feeling for ones such as themselves, who could be considered as more self-aware Grimm, to be left behind in the dust when usually out in the badlands the younger and smaller Grimm deferred to them.

Nonetheless, this was hardly something to be so focused on in and of itself; it was all part of the plan that their 'Mind' had concocted, with the younger Grimm going in first to soften up the city before they can go in and trample what was left.

If only the city itself still didn't look to be so far awa-.

The four Goliaths slowed ever so slightly in their massive steps in a moment of complete suddenness.

Something was approaching them. Or rather, someone. They intuitively sensed this before actually seeing the person in question.

A man from the general looks of the figure, still a little off in the distance.

The Goliaths all squinted their already narrowed eyes. Outside of the city walls, there wasn't as much plant life out here, making the area more akin to a wasteland than anything else. And the wind that constantly blew through the area generated a small cloud of dust that obscured the man's appearance.

Oh well, not that knowing what the man looked like would make much of a dif-.

One Goliath suddenly trumpeted in pain. The other ones immediately turned their large heads to look and see what the problem was.

Only to see that a large vertical gash had somehow appeared on the left side of its face, resulting in its left eye being rendered a complete mess. It was only then, after seeing this, that the others detected the difference in the wind.

It could've easily been written off initially as a simple change in its direction and speed. But now the Goliaths knew what had happened.

The man they had just spotted had generated enough wind pressure to reach one of them from here somehow.

The Goliath that had been injured snorted twice now, the first time in realization of what had happened and the second time in pure rage. How dare it be struck like this! Their original purpose alongside their brethren aside, being so suddenly attacked by an unknown was something it wouldn't stand for!

The injured Goliath, the apparent leader of the quartet, trumpeted out a battle cry.

And then all four of them began to charge.

* * *

Peter Port grinned maliciously, victoriously.

With but one swing of Blunderbuss, he'd already been able to deal some damage to one of the Goliaths. Now he had their undivided attention.

Good.

Having been walking forward until now, the man paused and took the time to survey his rejuvenated form.

Gone was the shorter and aged form of an old man. Now in its place was the body of strength itself.

Standing at a height of six feet and eight inches, Peter would easily tower over his former self. Large and extremely dense muscles strained tightly against his clothing, so much so that he'd done away with his jacket to reveal the waistcoat and dress shirt he wore underneath. With the sleeves rolled up, every single individual muscle could be seen bulging with even the simplest of movements in his forearms as his right hand gripped the mighty Blunderbuss firmly.

His face had once again regained the sharper and rugged features of his youth, his mustache trimmer and more fitting in size in regards to his face. His hair, still white in color, had lost its combed appearance and had become much more wild and messy in style, giving him something of an almost barbarian quality that contrasted with the gentlemanly appearance of his clothes whilst complimenting the power his body now contained.

His semblance, activated in full, had restored him to the absolute height of his prime.

He chuckled mirthfully, even his voice sounding deeper and more booming than his older self despite how quietly the action had actually been.

Ah, just when was the last time he'd actually been forced to use his semblance like this? He honestly couldn't remember. He'd really missed this feeling, this invigoration, this former power of his!

And now it was time to unleash it in the name of Vale upon these foul incoming beasts of darkness!

"Have at thee, beasts!" he yelled to the heavens as the Goliaths neared him with speed that didn't suit their large frames. He held his arms open as if to welcome them into his wide embrace. "Entertain me for a while then perish!"

With his golden eyes wide open and locked solely onto his _prey_ , Peter then charged forth into battle.

With the current grin he sported, he looked no different than a man who'd just discovered his calling in life.

As he launched himself at the closest of the Goliaths, Peter inwardly thanked them from the bottom of his heart.

He could finally be himself for a while.

* * *

 **Over 8,000 words! Wow, makes me wish I could squeeze in a bit more to meet the 9,000 mark, if only to make the classic joke, ha ha ha. But doing so would probably be pushing things a bit depending on how I'd even write it, heh!**

 **With this, the Breach event already reaches its turning point! There's still plenty of more to come before it's over though, so don't think it'll be ending just yet! Hope you will enjoy what else I have in store!**

 **And again, just thank you for all of the favorites and follows! I will continue to do my best for you all! Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	26. Chapter 26

And now for the new chapter! Wow, I sure managed to get around to working on this pretty fast! Hope that's a sign I'm improving a bit in my writing speed. Would always be handy to be able to type faster, never know when it can be useful!

Well, not much else to say really – amazingly on my part, ha ha ha – so let's just get straight to the action! As always, thank you for your support!

P.S. Apologies for all of the changing perspectives in this chapter! It's just that I want to make sure that a good portion of the characters and their situations are accounted for!

Chapter 26

Bart took no satisfaction in his current fight against Adam Taurus. As much of a threat to people that the man posed, Bart understood why the bull type Faunus ended up the way he did. The exact same way that many other members of the White Fang ended up the way they did.

Yet another reason why humanity and Faunus must come together, if only to no longer give rise to angry men such as Adam that were molded by the harshness and unfairness of discrimination.

His own feelings on the matter aside, this didn't stop him from smashing his weapon directly into the man's face, nearly cracking his mask apart in the process.

With a majority of the White Fang group now seemingly taken down, Bart took the risk of allowing himself to merely watch Adam stumble back from the blow and reflected on how this came to be.

Earlier following the odd sighting of that small black blur, he had gone on the move to seek out any other civilians that may have been in danger and it was only by pure luck that he had seen the young Ms. Arc fall from the sky from afar. A good thing that he'd rushed to go check on her at that moment, otherwise his student would have been killed by the man before him if he'd been even a few seconds too late.

To think that the White Fang would choose now of all times to attack Vale, however… was their presence here an amazing coincidence of sorts or had it along with the Grimm been planned?

Before his thoughts could go any further, Bart sensed danger. He cursed himself; he'd let his thoughts get to him for a second too long, had allowed Adam Taurus to have enough time to recover and swing his sword at a vertical angle towards him.

Twisting to the side, Bart avoided the attack easily enough and promptly spun to deliver what would have surely been a bone breaking blow to the man's back with his club. But to his surprise, Adam rolled forward to dodge the strike, which just missed him by a scant inch or two.

He watched as Adam rolled to a graceful stop several feet away and pulled up his… sheath? Bart's eyes narrowed for all of an instant before widening upon noticing that the sheath for the man's blade also double as a gun. He'd known the man had shot at him before just a moment ago, but he hadn't quite paid attention to what he'd been using to do so.

Well, his surprise aside, Bart raised his weapon and deflected each and every round fired at him with impeccable accuracy. That was when Adam suddenly stopped shooting and dashed directly at him, his sword sheathed now.

Bart noticed this particular fact and immediately began to backpedal. To those that were in the know about certain individuals from the White Fang, Adam Taurus was infamous for his overall skill in battle, especially his quickdraw techniques, which have slain more than a few people that had been taken off guard by it. And Bart, not even with his advantage in speed, wished to be too close to Adam when he unleashed his attacks like this.

He'd managed to get about three feet further back than he already was by the time Adam went on the offensive, his blade slashing through the air with greater speed than before. Bart was still very much capable of following it, but he didn't want to keep pressing his luck. For while he held the advantage in combat against the man, all it would take was one misstep for Adam to land a powerful strike, such as what he'd done a moment ago with what had to be his semblance.

As he deflected each blow that came his way, he could see the frustration mounting even behind the White Fang member's mask, the red highlights in his hair even glowing a bit from the build up of emotion. Bart inwardly frowned. He wasn't sure if Adam's semblance functioned like Ms. Xiao Long's in that intense anger can charge it up overtime, but he didn't want to take a risk.

It was time for him to put an end to this before things could escalate.

When another sword swing came his way, trying to cut into his waist, Bart swatted aside the strike by bopping the hilt of his weapon near the base of the blade itself, nearly knocking it out of Adam's hand. And the man immediately attempted to make sure that he didn't drop his blade, which required him to divert a small bit of his focus off of Bart.

And that had been a very bad thing for Adam to do, if Bart were to say so himself.

With the opening he'd so easily made in Adam's offense, Bart now responded with his own. Stomping down suddenly on the man's left foot, Bart thrust his long weapon forward like a lance and the blunt end of it connected solidly with Adam's chin. It knocked his head so far back that Bart thought he'd end up breaking his neck in the process. But he didn't let this stop him from following up the strike with even more.

He hit Adam in his right ribs. He hit Adam in his left kneecap. He hit Adam in the side of his right arm. He hit Adam on the side of the neck.

And then he delivered one final strike to the very side of the man's head, near the temple.

As the final blow in his assault sent the bull type Faunus flying, Bart watched the man's form quickly enveloped by a flash of flickering red. His aura was dangerously low now, it would seem. Only two or three more hits would likely be all that was needed to deplete Adam's aura for good.

With this in mind, Bart dashed along the roof, intent on dealing out the last few attacks just as Adam was about to land-.

-Only to have to be forced to leap back when Adam, still traveling through the air, performed his quick-draw five times in rapid succession.

The first three strikes generated enough air pressure to cut open the rooftop, nearly making a part of it collapse. This had been what made Bart move back despite having not been the target.

But the last two strikes ended up hitting a nearby water tower on a rooftop ledge that overlooked the one Bart was on. As such, when the water tower fell apart and its contents cascaded everywhere, Bart's vision ended up obscured as he nearly ended up being caught in the falling water.

Even as the cold water that did get him nearly soaked him to the bone, he put up a defensive stance, raising his weapon for what would surely be an inevitable counter from Adam… only for none to come. Now sensing something wrong, Bart ran through the still falling water to the other end of the roof.

To see absolutely no one.

It took his mind a few good seconds to even comprehend what this meant and when he did, his jaw actually went slack and fell open.

Adam Taurus, known to be one of the most stubborn people in the White Fang, had _ran away_.

* * *

The blackness, as it landed on the ground with a weightlessness that didn't suit its large body, could only feel something akin to worry upon noticing who else was there all but alongside the Fall Maiden.

Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee of that team RWBY, the former of which now held its interest the most.

If only because of what she had: those silver eyes.

The second it landed, the blackness felt the young leader immediately react to its very presence, the girl going from looking shocked upon seeing the Fall Maiden's downed form to looking pained.

If it were capable of it, the blackness would be swearing in marginal panic right now. It had figured that at one point or another its continued presence may trigger something within the girl, but with itself fully manifested now in addition to the near proximity of a maiden as well, it would seem that it no longer had a chance of doing something to rectify this.

The young girl fell to her knees, screaming suddenly as she clutched the area around her eyes. And despite the circumstances, that other girl – Weiss – didn't hesitate at all in dropping what she had been carrying and trying to see what was wrong with her partner.

But this was a bad move on her part; the blackness could detect an all too familiar build up within Ruby Rose and it was already reaching a bursting point.

It would be unharmed from what was about to happen, but the maiden… not so much.

So without even a microsecond's worth of hesitation, the blackness maneuvered itself in front of a stunned Amber and deftly reached out a massive hand to grab Weiss just as Ruby's eyes lit up from behind her hands.

The ensuing silver light that appeared an instant later was bright enough to envelop all of their forms along with the entire city block.

And as it grew even brighter, their forms seemed to disappear entirely into the brilliant glow.

* * *

Jaune had been in the process of flipping over an Ursa to deliver a knee strike to its spine, not unlike what he'd done during the Forever Falls incident, when his Aura Vision was, to put it bluntly, blinded.

He actually gasped in surprise and slight pain for just as he'd ended up looking to the east of Vale, a massive amount of silver aura had exploded forth from said direction, spilling out so quickly that he simply didn't have the time to close his eyes.

As such, he got the full brunt of the brightness and was rendered genuinely blind for a moment by the light that now seemed to fade just as suddenly as it had appeared.

"W-What was that?!" he vaguely heard Yang yell from somewhere behind him. Or so he thought he heard – the brightness had been so intense that he couldn't help but feel disoriented, even outright woozy as he struggled to make sense of what was what.

"And where are all the Grimm?" he now for sure heard Blake say, surprise tinging the normally quiet girl's voice.

Indeed, as the light had spread out and then vanished, it looked like all of the Grimm had suddenly upped and disappeared as well. Jaune could tell because the perpetual snarls and roars that had been resonating all over the city along with the cawing of the Nevermores above them had ceased in their entirety.

And as he now fully regained his senses again, it didn't take Jaune long at all to figure out what had happened.

"Her silver eyes…" he muttered to himself.

Somehow, Ruby Rose had gone and activated, if only for a brief moment, her silver eyes. But something was off here. It had been far more intense than what it should have been if she truly had awakened to the power of those eyes.

So it wouldn't have possibly been this intense unless…

Jaune's eyes went wide. So much so that he could almost feel his eyeballs nearly pop out of their sockets as he came to a most terrifying conclusion.

Ruby must have somehow come into contact with his fully manifested friend. Or a maiden…

That last thought worried him more than the girl accidentally meeting his friend. He knew that his friend and mentor would be fine from such an unintentional blast, but a maiden would suffer heavy damage. Because power aside, the maidens were still technically using the power of the Grimm and that was something that the silver eyes had long since been able to push back. And the maidens simply weren't powerful enough to endure such a concentrated push back unlike his friend.

…And now that he thought of it, what of himself? Was he unhu-?

"Y-Yo, professor! You alright?!" spoke up a now concerned Yang.

"I seem to be just fine," Jaune immediately replied, his train of thought interrupted as was often the case it would seem. He scrunched his face up in confusion. "Why are you asking?"

He would've asked the girl is she was hurt, if only for the sake of formality, but didn't do so. He could tell with his Aura Vision that both Yang and Blake, still very much confused and trying to take in all that had been happening thus far, were completely unharmed. Which made sense considering that the power of the silver eyes worked only against the Grimm.

"…You're kind of smoking a little…" now spoke a much more reluctant Blake. Oh how her eyes roamed over his form in a most clinical and suspicious fashion.

Sniffing, Jaune now indeed smelled something slightly burning and it was only now that he had noticed this that he now in turned realized how his skin was feeling a little singed. It would seem that not even he was tough enough to completely withstand the silver eyes.

Not yet, that is. But that was beside the point right now.

"I'll live," he tried to say in a joking manner. It evidently did little to soothe the two girls, for he could still see their eyes locked onto him, Yang with concern and Blake with some concern mixed in with that ever present suspicion of hers.

It was honestly getting quite uncomfortable. He had to say or do something to throw them off. "…I believe that came from the same direction Ruby and Weiss went in." At that, he noticed their attention shift, what little aura they had left rushing about wildly in surprise and worry. Now it was time to alleviate them a little. "I'll go check it out. For now, just sweep the area and make sure the Grimm are all gone. If nothing else, whatever had happened just now should've hurt them a lot."

He didn't even wait for a reply before rushing off as fast as he could, only barely hearing a startled cry from Yang before it faded from his hearing range.

Instead he now focused all of his attention in the direction the blast had originated from. Thanks to the sheer range of his Aura Vision, he could now already see the familiar aura of the Fall Maiden… with the recognizable auras of Ruby and Weiss all but right next to the maiden's own.

His heartrate picked up more than a little at this particular sight. For the auras of the three girls ever so subtly lit up the physical form of his friend. He'd never actually seen him in a physical form before, but the connection between them was enough for him to recognize the creature no matter what.

He swore under his breath as he put on a burst of speed. His friend, the Fall Maiden, and the wielder of the silver eyes along with the Schnee heiress all bunched together out in the open…

That couldn't possibly be a good thing.

* * *

"Uhh…" Emerald couldn't remember the last time she'd ever made such a sound. To be fair, this was the first time in a long time that she'd ever been in a situation that had left her so speechless.

One second, there had been plenty of Grimm rushing around, with Beowulves scaling some of the smaller buildings and Nevermore flitting around in the sky above before swooping down for a surprise attack.

And now… they were all gone. Literally every single Grimm that had been in her sights as they tried to tear through her had simply vanished before her very eyes.

"Because of that light?" she whispered to herself as she kept on futilely looking around for any sign of Grimm. Instead, all that met her sight was the collateral damage wrought by the creatures earlier.

She'd been doing what she could to fight her way through the beasts all while looking for any signs of the White Fang after she, Cinder, and Mercury had finally split up to cover more ground and that had been when that odd silver light had popped up out of nowhere.

And just like that, bam! No more Grimm. It was almost as if they had never existed, with only the destruction caused by them serving as the sole – and admittedly tragic – reminder of their presence here just a moment ago.

Her scroll began to ring, the sound so out of the blue that the thief jumped a little, her heart feeling as if it had been caught in her throat too in the process. Upon realizing what the sound had actually been, Emerald was quick to pull it out from her back pocket and answer.

Because only one person would ever contact her on her scroll.

"Cinder," she began before the woman on the other end of the line could even begin to speak. Emerald internally winced, knowing that the woman wouldn't like this interruption, but Emerald felt the need to first confirm with the woman just what had happened. "Did you see that light just now? Anything we should be worried about?"

As far as she could tell, she was unharmed by it. The surrounding infrastructure had been spared of damage as well from the light just now. It had only targeted the Grimm as far as she could tell.

"E-Emerald…" came the reply after a few seconds of unnerving silence. It was enough to make the girl freeze in place, if only because of how the woman had said her name.

Cinder sounded hurt.

"Come and get me right now… I'm in too much pain to move right now," gasped out Cinder from the other end of the line. A brief ping made itself known to Emerald as she also received a message during the ongoing call. "I've just messaged you my location… h-hurry up…"

The call abruptly ended after that and it took the girl a moment to finally pull the scroll away from her ear to look at the message. And in addition to Cinder's coordinates, it also had a by-line saying for her to contact Mercury too while she was at.

Emerald stared at the message, unblinking yet uncomprehending for the time being. Cinder had sounded hurt real bad. But how? Had someone or something been able to attack and wound her just a moment ago? No, the woman was too clever and powerful for a surprise attack to do much damage to her. Something else had to have happened then… but what?

Emerald shook her head. She could ponder those questions another time. Better yet, she could just ask Cinder for clarification on what had happened after she had been tended to.

But as she now dashed off towards Cinder's marked location, dialing Mercury's number in the process, Emerald couldn't keep herself from breaking out in a cold sweat as she moved.

Things have been going slowly going wrong for them all over the past few weeks, so much so that she's honestly stopped asking herself if things will continue to go wrong and had instead began asking herself _when_ things will go wrong next.

And she couldn't suppress the shudder that came with thinking that whatever for sure will happen next will end up being far worse than what's come before.

So as she continued to run, she put on an impressive burst of speed, just as motivated now by uncertain terror just as much as her usual devotion to Cinder.

She wasn't sure which of these two things was the greater motivator right now.

* * *

Far away from Vale yet rapidly approaching, a veritable fleet of airships approached. Massive yet sleek machines, equipped with the most weaponry and state of the art defenses known to mankind thus far, each and every single airship were the pride and joy of Atlas' development division.

And James Ironwood would actually dare others to try and see if they can do better. Which they won't because they didn't have Atlas quality tech at their disposal to accomplish this.

He was oddly childish in this respect, if he had to say so himself. But now he digressed.

Currently aboard the largest of all the ships – the mothership if a term had to be applied here – he stood on the main deck, hands placed behind his back as he stood tall, proud and determined while the crew around him did their work.

"How much longer until we reach Vale?" he asked of no one in particular.

"Current ETA is fifteen minutes, sir! Weapons are already hot and ready to fire at your command!" spoke one of the people at the terminals.

James merely nodded and gave a loud hum of acknowledgement. He stared outwards through the reinforced glass as if he could actually see the city from here.

And to an extent, he could, but only barely.

Vale, ah how his feelings about it were so mixed. On the one hand, he liked the city for all of its qualities and ability to allow its citizens to live a fairly free life as opposed to the much more formal and militaristic nature of all of Atlas… but this was tempered by his sometimes like, sometimes dislike for the council that ran things from the open and the shadows. Many decisions they've made in the past have earned his approval or at the very least his respect. But just as many decisions they've made have earned his vocal ire, even if said vocal ire was often kept behind closed doors where no one could hear him roar obscenities.

And then… there was the fact that Vale was, for all intents and purposes, the stomping ground of his longtime friend Ozpin. And that man was the target of several complicated feelings. He certainly respected the Beacon headmaster, of that there was not one bit of doubt… but sometimes the way Ozpin kept him out of the loop on certain matters along with certain actions taken have left him feeling more than a little frustrated with the man.

Were they not on the same side against the Queen? Surely, this fact along with the other fact that he, Glynda, Qrow and to an extent Winter Schnee were part of Ozpin's little cabal would've been reason enough for the Beacon headmaster to share as much information as possible to ensure maximum efficiency in all Queen related matters.

"Sir! We've detected something on radar!" called out another one of his subordinates, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Get me an image on what it is. Put it up on screen," he commanded without hesitation.

As people scrambled to do just that, something happened to promptly make them all stop.

Even James himself could only blink at what he saw.

Off in the distance but still much closer to them than Vale, what looked to them like a large black dot went flying up into the sky. An odd sound seemed to be coming from it, not unlike that of a wail.

Without a word spoken, one of the crew members at the terminals went to work on fixing a camera on it and putting the real time image up on the main screen that the main deck had equipped.

Everyone could only goggle at what they saw. "Is that… a Goliath?!" someone quipped in complete shock.

It certainly was. The massive elephant-like Grimm wailed now for all of them to hear thanks to the sound the audio equipment could now pick up, said creature futilely moving its pillar sized legs around as if it would do any good.

"…Pinpoint its launch trajectory and see what had caused this," James now said, trying not to let his stupor show through. That had certainly been new, even to the normally unflappable him.

Seriously, they had to be a few hundred meters up! Just how the hell did a Goliath of all things get launched this high up?!

"Sir, we have visual!"

The camera had now refocused onto the ground well below them as they were about to start passing over said spot. All they could do at that moment was watch in silence as the camera showed them what was going on below.

While it couldn't capture everything going on, it showed more than enough for them: three Goliaths with varying levels of injury charging and stomping around with a ferocity none of them had ever seen before, the three Grimm in question forming a triangular formation of sorts.

And there in the middle of said formation stood a man. A mountain of man, his entire body tall and packed with muscle that radiated pure power. With somewhat long and wild hair flowing about in the wind that contrasted with the gentlemanly mustache that their camera was oddly able to pick up, the man appeared to be laughing in the midst of the danger he was evidently in.

The entire crew, James included, could only watch as one Goliath attempted to crush the man underfoot with its left front leg… only for the man to reach out and stop the attack with just one arm. Then with a slight and audible heave, he forced the aforementioned limb back with just a shove that also resulted in the offending Goliath to be sent falling onto its back.

"Wow, what a man…" commented one of the female crew members, just as the camera managed to catch the pleased smirk of said man after the shove.

"S-Sir, your orders?" now said another crew member, sounding uncertain on what to do. "Do we engage?"

James didn't answer right away. Instead, he continued to stare at the screen for just a second or two more. He'd recognize those clothes and that weapon in the man's right hand anywhere. Moreover, the mustache too was also a dead giveaway, even more so than the weapon. It was almost enough to make him chuckle. Almost.

"…Leave it be. He's got it under control," James eventually said, smirking ever so slightly as he tilted his head down for a brief instant. It's been a very long time since he's seen or heard of Peter Port using his semblance. Looks like the old huntsman still more than had what it took to make the Grimm look like actual prey to him. "Stay on route to Vale and keep a sharp out eye for any Nevermores that may be flying about. Send a message to our other ships too: if they see anything that isn't human or Faunus, they put it down."

The subordinate that had asked saluted in response and proceeded to get to work on that… only to pause and reluctantly turn to face the general. "Err… and what about that Goliath, sir?"

The man pointed to the Goliath that had now begun its fall back to the ground as gravity finally took hold of it.

James could only snicker now, which drew some surprised gazes from those around. "Leave it be. I'm sure our ally on the ground will give it a warm welcome to the earth again."

Inwardly laughing off the somewhat confused expressions of his crew, James once more steeled himself as the ships all continued their course to Vale.

* * *

Peter watched for all of a second as the Atlas ships above continued their journey onwards, even picking up speed in the process.

Good. He'd have been sad if they had decided to interrupt his mixture of fun and anger-relieving.

And on that note…

"Come! Surely that isn't all you can do!" he yelled to the three Goliaths, spreading his arms out in the process.

The Grimm seemed to understand his taunt and let out sounds of anger in response. It brought a smile to his face, honestly, to know that he could get under the skin of his prey with just words alone.

The Goliath that was currently furthest away from him began to charge now. And oh, what a charge it was. Many that were ignorant of the various Grimm's capabilities would probably think the Goliaths to be slow and dull witted creatures given their massive frames, but that couldn't be any further from the truth, as the Goliath ran forth at the speed of a runaway freight train. Meanwhile, at the same time, the second Goliath that was standing now began to stomp wildly in place, generating tremors in the ground all throughout the area.

Peter, despite the tremors themselves not really affecting him, could only grin madly as they did their part in keeping him in place. The second Goliath had merely intended to disrupt his balance enough to keep him from dodging its comrade's charge. Truly, a simple tactic, but it spoke volumes of the ancient Grimm's intelligence.

Too bad it wasn't going to do it much good.

Loading a round into Blunderbuss, Peter took aim at the charging Goliath as he poured aura into the shot he was about to fire. And the aura he was pouring into it was visible to the naked eyes, golden and burgundy light surging along his massive arm, through his beloved weapon and into the chamber where his bullet lied.

His weapon grew hot as the round was infused with such an immense amount of aura that it was literally generating heat. But as intense as it was, all it did was further fuel Peter's battle lust as he sneered and fired.

A veritable wisp of light shot out of Blunderbuss and towards its target with frightening speed. And, as the charging Goliath quickly found out, with frightening power as well. The round struck the very side of its face, exploding with enough force on impact to knock it onto its side in mid-charge. It had built up so much momentum, however, that even as it fell, the massive Grimm kept on skidding in Peter's general direction.

With a speed that far surpassed whatever he'd demonstrated before, Peter dashed towards the skidding Goliath and with a swift upwards swing of his Blunderbuss, he sliced off its left tusk. He then leapt and grabbed a hold of the severed tusk and turned in midair just so that he could throw it at the other Goliath, which had now ceased in its stomping. It promptly let out a deafening shriek as the tip of the tusk impaled its right eye.

This kept it stunned just long enough for Peter to land and chase after the skidding Goliath, which was now beginning to come to a stop. He caught up with ease and now grabbing hold of its other tusk with both arms, he grunted only marginally in actual effort – an effort not to break the tusk off, that is – and with little heaving, he lifted the Goliath into the air where he then held it in place.

"Hmph… so light," he commented to himself. As the Grimm he now held trumpeted in shock and perhaps even fear, his eyes scanned the sky above until he found what he'd been looking for: the other Goliath he'd initially thrown into the air.

Laughing now, he judged the distance and the rate at which it was falling… and then after taking this into consideration, he threw the Goliath he'd been lifting with all of his strength directly at the falling one. The one he threw must have broken the sound barrier, judging by the booming sound he'd heard. But he ultimately paid this little mind as he leveled his weapon at the two soon-to-collide Goliaths and channeled his aura into the next five rounds for the same exploding effect as earlier.

Just as both Goliaths were about to slam into one another, Peter pulled the trigger in rapid succession, firing each charged shot that traveled through the air towards their targets. The five rounds struck home just as the two Goliaths crashed into one another with devastating.

The resulting explosion would've likely rivaled – and in Peter's humble opinion, outdone – the cannons that Atlas' warships have equipped, the combined force of each round in addition to the crash itself totaling to many kilotons worth of power, far beyond what the two Grimm could handle.

Peter didn't even have to look anymore to know that he'd vanquished two of his prey just like that. Instead, with an angry smile, he turned to the remaining two Goliaths. The one he'd struck with the tusk was still staggering in place, but the tusk had somehow fallen out from the eye and its now one good eye focused on him with the intensity of a soon to erupt volcano. As for the final Goliath, which he'd knocked onto its back earlier, it had finally managed to get back on its feet and sport an expression that could probably be mistaken for one of pure embarrassment and anger.

Said expression was quickly changed before Peter's very eyes from embarrassment and anger to pure pain as he immediately crossed the distance between them and sliced the near bottom of its right front leg with Blunderbuss.

The mighty beast howled and reared itself back a bit. Peter presumed it was trying to get away from him, but then the massive Grimm tried to slam its injured leg down on him.

In response to this, Peter merely threw an uppercut with all of his might and weight, pivoting forward so that his blow met the very center of the bottom of its foot. Fist met foot and the former won out, with Peter being rewarded with the sound of bone breaking in the Goliath's entire foot.

As it once more roared in pain, Peter lightly jumped underneath it and towards its back legs. Then while still in the air, he dropkicked the beast right in the knee of its right back leg. Breaking cartilage met his ears and it had never sounded so beautiful to him before. The back leg immediately buckled and the Goliath began to fall, but not before Peter had landed and moved out of the way. Enhancing the bladed edge of Blunderbuss with aura, Peter made sure to slice completely through its other back leg with a horizontal two-handed swing.

As the Goliath now fell forward for good, Peter now leapt into the air once more, directly above the downed Grimm. Spinning in place rapidly, he built up momentum at a ridiculous pace before delivering the final blow in the form of a vertical spinning swing that generated enough air pressure to outright slice through the entire Goliath.

When Peter touched ground only a few seconds later, it was where the Goliath had been so suddenly split in half, its body now dissipating upon its death.

"And then there was only one," Peter muttered in equal parts pleasure and still burning anger. Ye gods, how he's missed his former strength. But the circumstances in which he had to use his semblance combined with the lack of ultimate challenge that these four Goliaths had ultimately provided him was souring his mood by the minute, especially now that only one remained.

And oh, how scared it now looked. A rather impressive feat, really, to look so scared with just one good eye. Peter supposed he couldn't blame the dull creature for feeling fear; he'd taken down its brethren just now in only a handful of seconds, after all, now that he'd started to grow bored of entertaining these things.

"You've chosen your fight poorly, miserable beast," Peter began as he slowly walked towards the final Goliath. "Just as your Grimm brethren dared to besiege Vale and wreak havoc, I have now gone and wreaked havoc amongst the small group of your own kin. An eye for an eye, I suppose… literally, in your case." He grimaced as he neared. The Goliath actually took a surprisingly subtle step back, though his eyes had caught the movement anyways.

He'd been resting Blunderbuss against his thick shoulder, but now he began to lift it forward, ready to swing it at a moment's notice. "Know this before you die: it will take far more than the likes of you to do humanity in! Vale will continue to stand as will the other kingdoms! So die knowing that you'll never succeed in destroying us!"

His weapon glowing as he poured aura into it, Peter swung his blade one final time before promptly turning around and leaving.

The sound of a massive body hitting the ground and slowly disappearing only marginally registered to him as he began his trek back to Vale.

* * *

Weiss didn't know what to make of her current situation at all. Not that she was all that keen on analyzing anything at the moment. For all that mattered to her right now was the state of her partner and team leader.

"Ruby?! Ruby!" she screamed in a manner that she inwardly knew was unbefitting of a heiress. But image mattered little to her right now as she knelt on the ground, cradling her partner as she seemed to be drifting in and out of unconsciousness randomly.

"W-Weiss…? W-W-What happened?" Ruby managed to croak out. The young girl held her hands over her eyes, her face scrunched up with equal parts confusion and pure pain.

The heiress could only remain silent in the face of Ruby's question, having no real answer to give. Just how could she respond to such a question when she herself could barely comprehend what had just happened? One second, the two of them had been running with all of their weapons in tow and then the next thing they knew, some woman had come crashing from the sky along with some… some unknown thing popping up only a few seconds later. Then before they could even get that good a look at it, Ruby had suddenly dropped her weapons in pain and a bright silver light had burst forth from her.

Wow, now that she thought of this in her head, it sounded so very straightforward in how things played out… but as to why and how things turned out this way? She didn't have the slightest clue and it was on this note that she was rendered unable to answer Ruby's question at all.

Then movement caught her eyes and the heiress turned her head up so fast that she nearly cracked it. There, little more than several feet away from her and the downed form of Ruby was that _thing_. It was hunched over, the red glows that served as its eyes locked onto the two of them.

No… not them… just Ruby. Instinctively, Weiss turned slightly, gently moving the now unconscious Ruby just a few extra inches away from the creature before her.

The thing turned its head just a little bit to the left, as if trying to follow the movement, but did nothing further. A sizzling sound resounded throughout the small area from the entity and smoke poured off of it. While Weiss had no idea what had happened, whatever Ruby had done just now had seemingly gotten rid of all of the nearby Grimm. However, it looked like this creature had been barely fazed by that light.

A moan suddenly escaped someone's lips and it was enough to make Weiss jump just a tad bit. The creature seemed to hear it too and it slowly moved to the left, revealing the downed form of the unknown woman that had crashed earlier.

Said woman seemed almost unconscious, but was otherwise unharmed, at least when compared to the state she had already been in.

The creature, its humanoid form unnerving Weiss the more she looked at it, leaned over the unknown woman as if to study her. Then it made a sound that could've probably been mistaken for some kind of relief.

And then something else happened, something that made Weiss go completely still.

It spoke.

" **Hmm, good… it would seem she suffered no physical damage from the silver eyes."** The creature said this in an extremely deep and almost guttural voice, so very human yet not human to the heiress' ears. And then when it focused its gaze back on Ruby, Weiss had to do everything she could to keep from running… she had the feeling doing so wouldn't have helped much. **"As for the girl, it looks like her sudden awakening had taken much more out of her than expected. Well… at least her eyes will not be a concern for a while longer."**

The creature – some type of Grimm, Weiss couldn't help but think, yet so much more – fully turned to face her, but not before gently reaching down and lifting the unknown woman into its massive arms, bridal style. The woman looked positively tiny in the creature's arms, so much so that Weiss worried if just the next smallest movement of its arms would be enough to crush her, but nothing happened.

The entity now began to take some eerily light steps towards her and Ruby. Weiss' breath hitched as she looked at its face and solely at the face, her mind trying and failing to process just what the hell it was supposed to look like. Only when her mind failed to comprehend what the face looked like did she finally take note of it now walking towards her, the entity already crossing half of the distance with just two steps thanks to its height.

Having been carrying Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud up until Ruby's collapse, both weapons were lying right next to her and she wasted no time in grabbing a hold of her weapon.

But just as she had it in hand and began to point it towards the approaching creature, a new arrival appeared on the scene.

"Wait!" cried out a voice. A male voice, young.

And it belonged to none other than Beacon's youngest (assistant) professor: Jaune Arc. The young blind man literally leapt forth seemingly from nowhere and landed just a few feet to her left.

The creature took note of his arrival, turning its head to look at the blond and Weiss immediately feared that it would somehow attack the young man; she'd sensed a shift of sorts in its demeanor and that had been enough for her to begin to cry out a warning to Jaune-.

-Only for the creature itself to interrupt her. **"Jaune. It's a bit of a surprise to see you here so suddenly… had Ruby Rose's power spread out that far?"**

"Y-Yeah, looks like just about all of the Grimm in the downtown area were taken care of," Jaune replied more or less immediately. While his stance was a wary one, the young man didn't seem to be taking up a combat stance any time soon. And the tone in which he just spoke in addition to what this thing just said… Weiss couldn't help but goggle, completely stupefied. The young (assistant) professor and this thing _knew_ each other?!

And now the professor was looking – again, how?! He's blind, isn't he?! – at her and Ruby. In light of the revelation she'd just had a second ago, Weiss couldn't help but slowly maneuver her weapon so that it was pointed at the spot in between the professor and this unknown entity.

Suddenly, with how these two seemed to know each other, she was finding it hard to figure out just what to do next. And oh, how unbecoming it was of a heiress to inwardly pray for some kind of solution.

But pray, she did.

* * *

It was with only marginal attention that Jaune noticed Weiss move her weapon into a position that would allow her to attack either him or his friend if need be. Not that he could really blame her given the circumstances, but ultimately not something worth focusing on.

Instead, with his Aura Vision, he looked first to the unconscious Ruby and Weiss before fixing his gaze on the Fall Maiden, who was now unconscious in his friend's arms. Studying her for a brief few seconds, he let out the smallest of relieved sighs.

Despite the two of them being knocked out, it would seem that the Fall Maiden and Ruby were both fine. Given their proximity, he'd been worried that Ruby's silver eye power would severely hurt or even kill the maiden given that her power more or less originates from his friend, making the maiden power a Grimm related one… but it looks like all the blast did was knock out her lightly. Presumably, his friend and mentor had acted as a shield for the maiden.

Well, that certainly put one of his fears at rest. He definitely hadn't been expecting Ruby's silver eye power to awaken – he'd need to ask his friend why that had happened too, but later – but it had definitely been a cause for concern initially.

So now with this immediate worry addressed, he slowly looked around with his eyes, hoping to spot off in the distance the familiar aura of his sister.

As he attempted to do so, he made sure to address his comrade about the matter at hand. "Why was she even here anyway?" he asked, pointing to the maiden. "Had she sensed us here and then decided to confront one of us?"

" **It was mainly me she seemed to have sensed, it would seem… and based off of our brief encounter, it would seem that the power she'd been given by that man had contained residual feelings of his and that is why she had been unusually quiet and hostile towards me,"** his friend explained calmly.

Jaune ceased in his searching just long enough to ponder that. Residual feelings? From what his friend had told him of his and the Mind's former Apostle, he'd figured that the old man had hated the two, but to the point where it would somehow manifest in the maiden power he'd given the women? That was a surprise.

"I'm not quite sure I could say I blame this man you speak of," suddenly spoke out a voice, one that made Jaune more or less become a human statue. Out of the corner of his Aura Vision, he could see Weiss freeze up too. And through his connection with his friend, he felt him shift his attention.

Slowly turning around, to say Jaune was surprised by who had all but snuck up behind him would've been an understatement. He was downright terrified.

"G-Glynda…" he muttered out. "I thought you were still in the safe zone, defending it."

One Glynda Goodwitch stood just a few yards behind him, her crop at the ready as it was pointed towards him. The way her eyes narrowed at him via his Aura Vision along with the waves rippling through the woman's aura told him all he needed to know – the woman was shocked, mad, and was clearly going to demand some answers.

"The number of Grimm around that area had lightened up enough for me to risk venturing out into the city to offer additional aid," she said in a cold tone that left no room for any further quips.

"Now then… care to explain yourself, Mr. Arc?"

* * *

 **Heh, don't think things are suddenly going to be winding down or anything just yet… there's still yet again a few more things I've left out intentionally. Jeanne's current whereabouts, where Adam ran off to, the status of the other teams, Salem, the Atlas fleet… these will be addressed in the next chapter and hopefully the explanations for it all will be satisfactory to you all as it will justify why some of these things weren't elaborated on during the Breach or why they were left out of this particular chapter.**

 **Now on a completely random side note: for any curious about Jaune's level of power right now, he's roughly as powerful as Hakai Banchou from Kongou Banchou. And as for how his friend, the 'Power' looks like, basically imagine Eddie's humanoid form from Guilty Gear Xrd, just with its head being shaped more like Hakumen's helmet head.**

 **Whelp, not much more to say other than that I'm sorry for the longer than usual wait – as you can tell, the chapter is a little longer than the norm I've established with previous chapters. Whether or not future chapters will be this long or longer is something even I don't know, but I'll do what I can to get them out at a reasonable pace still.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	27. Chapter 27

Sorry for the longer than usual wait! Took my time writing the most recent chapter to my original novel since I wanted to make sure I had certain things in order. And as for this chapter, it took me just a bit of time to plan out what I did and didn't want in this one.

To those of you worried that literally all will be revealed in this chapter, not to worry – I know when to hold back, ha ha ha.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 27

With a bit of a heavy sigh, Salem sat down upon a throne-like seat she had fashioned a long time ago. During the many decades she had been out here in this twisted and almost otherworldly place, she had utilized her own abilities as well as the Grimm here to make for herself an actual base where she could rest and overlook the large cliff that it rested upon.

Aside from the Grimm here, she was all alone, the only true lifeform here. Not that this bothered her. If anything, it always pleased her to be alone like this – humanity had long since earned her animosity. She will admit that a select few such as Cinder did have their uses…

But that was getting off topic.

It's been a few hours now since her Grimm had been wiped out from Vale and all because of a rather surprising development: the awakening of that girl's silver eyes. While that annoying silver light had shined just bright enough to make even her blink in direct response, it had been more than enough to clear out all of the Grimm that had come flooding into Vale. Which meant that her little invasion of sorts had been thoroughly thwarted.

Oh well, not that it was that upsetting. The invasion had never really been meant from the start to flatten Vale. If that truly had been her goal, then she would've taken a more direct role in leading the Grimm.

Still, it did somewhat amaze and surprise her how that girl just happened to end up in the presence of both a maiden and Tenebrous in its manifested form simultaneously. No wonder her silver eyes had awakened so violently.

Alas, that had been more or less the last thing she herself had seen through the eyes of the Grimm right before they'd been obliterated. So whatever had happened or was happening remained a mystery to her.

And although she would never admit it aloud, she was just slightly peeved by that. She knew for a fact that Tenebrous wouldn't hurt that girl; the silver eyed girl simply had far too much use for the 'Power' to simply do away with her. But just because the 'Power' wasn't going to ever harm the girl, at least not willingly, the same couldn't be said for the opposite. And she did recall seeing the silver eyed girl running alongside another girl around her age, one dressed in white… in all likelihood, that girl too had seen Tenebrous and the Fall Maiden up close and personal.

She wondered how that ultimately turned out.

Ah, but then there was also that other girl to consider – the Apostle's little sister, that young blonde girl that had been tumbling from one Nevermore to the next to descend safely from the sky earlier. Ha, that had definitely been amusing if only because such a thing had honestly never been done before. But that actually did irk her a little. While the blonde girl hadn't been a particularly high priority, Salem would admit that she felt a little miffed at how she survived against all of the little things thrown her way.

And while there was no chance of the girl awakening her still slumbering semblance in the same violent manner as that silver eyed girl, that didn't mean that her eventual awakening of her semblance wouldn't be memorable somehow. But if nothing else, she should be a little grateful that said semblance wasn't quite on the same level as the silver eyes. It could still prove annoying in the future though.

Humming to herself as she thought, Salem slowly turned her eyes up to the glass ceiling above, peering up at the broken moon that seemed to hang directly over her position.

Taking into consideration all that had happened today and what will most likely result from it, all she could do was ask herself one simple question:

"Just when should I make my next move?"

As if in response to the dark thoughts that followed, the very air seemed to grew chaotic and cold, a sound not unlike screams reverberating from nowhere.

And as she pondered answers to this self-asked question, Salem could only grin maliciously.

* * *

"Urgh!"

"S-Sorry, did I tie it too tight?"

"N-No, just feeling a little tender still…"

Pyrrha could only sigh a little in relief at the response she got from her partner.

It's been a few hours now since all of the Grimm suddenly vanished immediately after that flash of silver light and since then things have already started to unwind.

After it had indeed been confirmed by the Atlas ships that had arrived not long after the light vanished that the Grimm were no longer there, no time had been wasted in mobilizing every available medical unit that the city's and Atlas fleet's disposal. People that had been horded into the marked safe zone or had otherwise been holed up in a variety of makeshift bunkers had been gently yet quickly led here to the center of Vale where a sort of hub had been hastily set up to tend to the wounded and dead.

And Pyrrha, the so called invincible girl by many still, had been hurt pretty bad during today's incident. After those bullheads had been destroyed and fell virtually on top of her and others' heads, she had all but scrambled for freedom from under the rubble initially and that had allowed the very smart and therefore much more terrifying than usual Grimm to land several good hits on her before she'd finally been able to get into the groove of things.

But that didn't mean she'd ultimately emerged unscathed; while her aura had naturally taken the brunt of all the damage she'd suffered, it was still nothing more than a cushion. As such, the now tired redhead was sporting a multitude of cuts, scraps, and bruises all over her body and her chest armor was dented a bit from where a Boarbatusk had somehow managed to blindside her and tackle her hard. She'd also suffered a slight fracture to her ankle from when said Boarbatusk had dragged her and another student along for a violent ride by their legs.

That being said, she had been one of the lucky ones, and the 'lucky ones' mainly consisted of her and maybe a dozen other students and police officers for one reason or another. Compared to the rest of the people caught up in this Grimm attack, be it someone on the frontlines or a civilian, she had gotten off easy – even as she still tended to her partner, Ren was lying on a stretcher just several feet away, the young man resting sometimes peacefully and sometimes not so peacefully whenever he shifted in his sleep; he'd broken a rib or two thanks to his aura reserves having been depleted followed by an Ursa knocking him down and stepping down on his side. And that wasn't even mentioning the various bruises he got in addition to a sprained wrist, which might have been the mildest of his injuries. As for Nora, the girl had faired just a little better, sitting quietly next to Ren with a worried look in her eyes, the girl's left arm in a sling due to the fractured arm she got. Her hair was frazzled and she was perhaps sporting more scraps than any of the other students she had seen thus far.

And as for her own partner…

"Ouch!" Jeanne cried as Pyrrha put on another roll of medical gauze around the girl's head.

"Sorry…" Pyrrha muttered softly.

Her partner and leader, for lack of a better way to put it, looked as if she'd gone jumping off buildings without any protection, with only her amazing amount of aura and its quality being why her entire body hadn't simply transformed into one big bruise. And she had told Jeanne this just moments ago and boy oh boy, had she been surprised when Jeanne had reluctantly told her about her Nevermore experience.

Pyrrha found herself having a whole new level of respect for her partner just for the sheer willpower it must have taken to try a stunt that crazy. She doubted even Nora would've done such a thing.

"How's Ren doing?" Jeanne suddenly asked, ignoring her pain just long enough to look to Nora.

"…He's doing fine now. One of the docs swung by like half an hour ago and already checked on him. All that's left for now is just rest and for his aura to recover and do its job…" Nora answered in a mellow voice. It really saddened Pyrrha to hear her voice like that.

"And how about you?" the redhead softly asked. "Will your arm be fine?"

Nora grunted as she hefted her left arm forward, wincing as pain must have assaulted her from the movement. "I've seen better days…"

"And you're going to be seeing many more!" Jeanne declared abruptly.

Pyrrha watched as an expression of surprise and then amusement came over Nora, the auburn haired girl laughing a little. "Yeah, I guess so, fearless leader." Nora looked back to Ren.

It was at this point that the redhead noticed Nora's right hand was tenderly gripping Ren's left hand.

This didn't seem to go unnoticed by Jeanne either. "…And Ren will be up and at it in no time too!"

"..Ha, he better. He's lazy enough as it is," Nora said a little wistfully, but with just a bit of the usual cheer that she had.

Now Pyrrha herself couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, he always did seem to be lacking enough sleep. So try to cut him some slack."

Nora didn't respond verbally, merely nodding slowly instead. Then the girl looked around and Pyrrha and Jeanne followed her gaze.

All around them, dozens upon dozens of people could be seen and more were pouring in by the minute. Doctors bustled about at frantic speeds with Atlas soldiers and volunteers providing as much assistance as possible. They even saw some of the professors from Beacon running around too, no doubt making sure all of their students were accounted for in addition to others, of course.

Some people cried in heartwarming joy as they spotted loved ones, others cried in heartbreaking sadness as family and friends died from injuries sustained. Some of the students and police officers being tended to looked quiet but proud, at the very least feeling satisfied that they did their best whilst others sported looks that would've looked far more at home on the faces of veterans, the weight of what had happened today clearly haunting them in one form or another.

It was, to put it simply, a mish-mash of emotions that both healed and wounded their hearts. And if Pyrrha was being honest with herself, it was enough to nearly make her cry, though she did her best to avoid doing so. Not out of some silly sense of pride, but merely so that she didn't worry the others, though she doubted they'd take issue with it.

"So am I the only one who's feeling…" Nora suddenly began, only to trail off. But what she wanted to say didn't go unheard.

"No, it's not just you," Pyrrha said in response.

"Definitely not just you," Jeanne chirped haggardly.

There was a pause that lasted for only a moment before one of them spoke again. "So…" Nora began, looking away from the crowd and now at Jeanne, all while her hand more firmly squeezed Ren's without hurting him. "Just what the hell had happened today?"

It was a question with such a broad, overarching answer that Jeanne couldn't answer. Nor could Pyrrha herself as she watched from the sidelines for a moment.

"…Dunno," Jeanne said. "Just about anyone's guess is as good as mine. All I know… is that after my Nevermore adventure, well… I ended up bumping into some White Fang guys…"

All else seemed to just slip away around her. Pyrrha could literally feel her eyes grow wide and she swiveled on the spot towards Jeanne so sharply that it took a few seconds for the pain to register from the sudden movement. "W-What?! You didn't say anything about that earlier!" she said before she could stop herself.

Jeanne winced and that sight was enough to make Pyrrha feel bad. Thankfully, it didn't seem like Jeanne minded it too much. "Well, I had been a bit more concerned on me and Ren getting patched up," she said a little sheepishly.

Pyrrha felt a sudden need to scold her for leaving such information out from their previous and admittedly quick conversation, but withheld it. Jeanne had been beaten up pretty good earlier, so it was only natural to prioritize recovery first. "Have you told anyone else this?"

"With what else had gone on? I don't think she did, Pyr," Nora then spoke, grabbing the girl's attention. The hammer wielding girl motioned with her head to nothing in particular. "I mean, just look around us – letting it slip to anyone that White Fang had been here would only bring another wave of Grimm."

"B-But still…" Pyrrha knew right away that Nora raised a good point, but still, surely something could've been done, yes?

"W-Well, pro- I mean Doctor Oobleck knows… he was the one who saved me from the group at the last minute. No idea what happened after that though," Jeanne said slowly.

At those words, Pyrrha could only sigh. At least someone else knew. And the fact that Oobleck was here amongst the civilians, tending to people as best as he could, she figured that the professor must have dealt with whatever the White Fang had been doing here.

Still, she really wished to know just what exactly such a group would be doing here in the first place, though she figured that as long as the current threat had been neutralized, she could hold off on asking for answers.

"Ah!"

"What is it?!" Pyrrha then asked in a bit of worry at the sudden sound of surprise her friend and teammate made.

Jeanne looked a little sheepish now. "It's just that my brother had been here earlier too. About an hour or so ago before you had found and started tending to me."

Pyrrha let out a sigh. That had seriously worried her for a second there; she'd thought something bad had somehow happened to the blonde, but it didn't seem that way one bit. "Oh… how was he? Was he unhurt?" She couldn't help but inquire about the man. Surely considering how strong he was, he shouldn't have been injured too much during this horrific event.

Come to think of it, none of the other professors she'd seen rushing about right now looked all that beat up either. They truly were the best.

"No, he wasn't hurt at all really," Jeanne said with a bit of a happy smile despite the pain she must still be feeling. "He'd just come to check up on me and oh boy, he looked ready to burst a vein when he realized just how bruised up I was." The girl giggled a little at the memory, only to wince when the action brought pain.

However, her giggling ceased as did her smile just a moment later and seeing this, Pyrrha felt just a little bit on edge for some reason. "But he couldn't stay too long to look after me; he was with Professor Goodwitch and from the look on her face, I think she and him had a lot to discuss ASAP."

Professor Goodwitch… Pyrrha tried to picture the stern blonde teacher with such an expression, but found such a thing impossible to do. The woman normally looked so strict and uptight – no offense meant to said woman, of course – that picturing her with such a severe expression just wasn't possible for her. Still, that aside, it was a shame that Professor Arc couldn't have stuck around longer – it would've been nice to see him and have his reassuring presence around.

But just what exactly could the two of them have to discuss now of all times? Another wave of Grimm possibly coming their way? Could Doctor Oobleck have informed them of the White Fang? Something else that was equally threatening in scope?

Well, regardless of what the topic actually is, Pyrrha was certain of one thing: it must be extremely serious to have their attention.

* * *

In another part of the hub set up, Weiss sat with the rest of her team in a large tent, where currently a few dozen people were resting. This tent was mainly meant for the least injured of the bunch and was kept just a little ways away from another tent that served for the more injured to be examined.

And right now, Weiss sat in silence with Blake and Yang around a still unconscious Ruby, who lied on a makeshift bed before them.

The heiress wasn't the only silent one – just about everyone else in the tent was remarkably quiet as well. She couldn't blame them for this; today had been a very rough day, to put it mildly.

She was surprised by how quiet the blonde brawler of their team was, but then again, her younger sister was out cold. While the young Ruby had little injury, the mere fact that she was still so deeply unconscious for now was a worrying thing for anyone, so Weiss imagined that Yang was feeling extremely scared right now.

"…Just what exactly happened?" Blake slowly said from her spot beside her.

"I honestly don't know," Weiss replied just as slowly. Now she could feel Yang's gaze shifting onto her, the lilac eyes glaring hard as if to make her fess up everything. The heiress merely sighed and proceeded to direct her next words towards the blonde. "I really don't know. One moment, we'd been running back with all of our weapons and then the next thing I know, Ruby's eyes glowed and she pretty much passed out."

And oh wasn't that so simplified a version of the actual events. Weiss was leaving out a lot – the appearance of that woman and that creature, the Grimm apparently being wiped out by the silver light from Ruby's eyes, the arrival of Jaune Arc and his interactions with that entity – but she couldn't bring herself to tell the other two so much as a single wisp of this information.

Partly because she doubted they would believe her – even she herself felt like it had all been too surreal – and mainly because of Professor Goodwitch. When she'd appeared and had spoken oh so briefly with her assistant professor, the woman had all but commanded her to keep quiet about this matter for now until much later after everything had been sorted out.

The professor had no way of knowing if she'd actually agree to this, but Weiss still held her tongue anyways since she had the distinct feeling that somehow Goodwitch would discover it anyways if she so much as hinted at any of this to Blake and Yang.

And she would much prefer to not have to deal with such an angry professor. Especially not so soon after today.

Blake and Yang continued to stare at her. Weiss did her best to not flinch under their gazes. She could tell that they didn't quite buy it, but at the same time, she could see their reluctance to try and interrogate her. After all, it'd be hard to do so when they themselves seemed so unsure of what questions to specifically ask. That, and doing so now of all times would be very awkward and rude.

But the heiress could tell that this was hardly going to be the end of it. They were going to ask her much later about what had happened, but for now they would content themselves with the knowledge that all four of them had gotten out of this in one piece as did a number of other people.

So as they all directed their eyes back to the still knocked out Ruby, Weiss could only hope that whatever was going to happen next would be resolved soon.

* * *

It's been hours since his fight against that green haired bastard and even now, Adam Taurus couldn't believe what had ultimately happened.

He'd ran away.

"Damn it!" He struck his fist harshly against the wall, collapsing it upon impact.

After he'd started to seriously lose ground against that odd man, the high ranking White Fang member had simply been left with no choice but to retreat and live to see another day in freedom. Of course, this had meant abandoning the rest of his men behind to be captured and taken into custody, assuming the Grimm hadn't simply pounced on their unconscious forms not long afterwards.

Though given how that silver light seemed to wipe out all of the invading Grimm, there was a strong likelihood that such a thing hadn't happened. Maybe.

In any case, he'd been forced to dash as close to the wall of Vale as much as possible, well away from where a majority of the city's population had been gathered and had called for a very small extraction team to get him the hell out of here. The mission had been a complete bust before it had even fully started and now it was time to return to base and start planning things out far more thoroughly.

Already, he was trying to think of what else to do, but alas nothing was coming to mind. He was still too riled up to be thinking straight as was made evident by his painfully tight grip on his blade.

"…Shit!" He swore out of the blue as he realized this, making a conscious effort from punching another wall. "I swear… I swear that things aren't going to end here!"

And to think… when he really tried thinking of it, it all came down to that blonde girl and that green haired bastard. If not for the former, his group wouldn't have stopped where they had been at and therefore likely wouldn't have come across the latter. And if not for the latter, their mission could have very well been a success.

Those two… those two are going to pay.

Even if it was the last thing he ended up doing, Adam was going to make sure those two suffered.

The sneer that now appeared on his face was truly animalistic. Were anyone else there to see it, Adam probably wouldn't have looked much different from an actual animal.

A pity that this was lost on the man himself.

* * *

Jaune sighed for what felt like the millionth time.

Following Glynda stumbling across him and his friend talking out in the open – God, how stupid could he have been? – there had followed a brief time in which he and Glynda first went to drop the unconscious Ruby and her partner Weiss off at the medical hub set up in the center of a now Grimm-free Vale, which had in turn allowed him to spend just a few minutes with his sister. Needless to say, his heart had been pumping a million miles a minute when he'd noticed how beat up she was, but thankfully none of the damage she'd taken would be permanent.

He'd have loved to be able to spend some more time with her… but business had unfortunately called.

And so, he, his friend once more in the form of his coat, Glynda, and an unconscious Fall Maiden had been secretly whisked back to Beacon Academy. The Fall Maiden had been taken by Glynda to be tended to elsewhere, leaving Jaune and by association his friend to wait in a facility that lied well beneath the headmaster's tower.

No doubt he would soon be subjected to a very intense interrogation. And it was making him more than a little nervous.

But at the same time, a small part of him couldn't help but feel a little excited. From the very start, he'd always entertained the notion of working together with others to achieve the goal of stopping Salem, but his friend would usually shoot down this idea in one way or another. But perhaps now, things could change for the better.

And this is where his nervousness came into play. For just what could he say that would ensure their cooperation? Surely, he could not tell them absolutely everything, that much was certain. It would literally just be too much information for them to comprehend and some of it was – not to be rude here – irrelevant to the task of stopping Salem. That wasn't to say that it wasn't interesting or even world-changing… but regarding Salem, it wasn't _that_ integral.

But that being said… of the information that was relevant to this matter, just what exactly could he still say? Because even then, there was some stuff that he wasn't sure he should tell them.

 _We should try and base the amount of information on what their questions are and the scope of said questions._

Wow, that was actually a pretty good idea his friend had just there. Jaune couldn't stop himself from patting his 'coat' in gratitude for that suggestion. But still…

"But still… just what exactly should we _not_ say to them?" Jaune asked, worried. "I know that cooperating with them from the start was my idea, but even I know that amongst what info we could give him that there's still some things we can't just say right now."

He already had an inkling of the questions they'd ask him and his friend and of the various responses he tried to think up to these imagined questions, there were still some things that he wasn't sure should be revealed right now.

But perhaps… perhaps it would be best after all just to come fully clean with them? After all, no matter how shocked they'd be, no matter how upside down their worldviews may end up becoming, surely what would matter still to them would be simply focusing on dealing with their common enemy first, right?

 _I suppose there's only one way of finding out… here they come._

Jaune looked up from his 'coat' just in time to spot two aura signatures in the elevator that was now about to stop on this secret floor. At the exact same time, Glynda finally exited the room that lied somewhere else on this floor after having finally finished making sure the Fall Maiden was resting peacefully.

He could feel her eyes locking onto him intensely, but he managed to ignore this in favor of focusing on the two aura signatures on the elevator. He could clearly recognize one that belonged to Ozpin, the cool green aura clearly highlighting his form, but he couldn't put a name to the other one, light grey in color and highlighting a form that was broader and taller than Ozpin's own.

Upon it reaching its destination, the elevator's two occupants stepped out.

"How is she, Glynda?" Ozpin spoke first, completely ignoring Jaune.

"Roughed up quite a bit, but she'll be okay. I've just patched up her bruises, more or less. She just needs to rest and recover while her aura and maiden power tends to the damage," Glynda huffed out.

Jaune watched in silence as Ozpin nodded and then directed his gaze directly towards him. "Mr. Arc. Glynda's message to me earlier had been fairly cryptic, but she explained enough for James and I to get the idea. Care to explain yourself?"

Jaune winced a little at how professional and cool Ozpin's tone was, a far cry from the somewhat more lax tone he took with him in the few previous conversations they've had.

Jaune made ready to speak, but before he could do so, the other man – James – spoke up. "And if I were you, I'd try not to hide anything from us.

Ah and now he realized just who the man was – James Ironwood, general of Atlas' military. Well now, that was unexpected. But amazingly, Jaune found himself only slightly taken aback by this realization and less than amused by the not so subtle threat.

Sure, a threat or two had been expected, but it kind of fell a little short of what he'd been unconsciously been expecting.

But that aside…

He scratched the back of his head as he tried to think of a good way to start this off. He was keenly aware of how the three of them slowly and silently spread out, forming a triangular formation around, no doubt meaning to take him down if he so much as twitched a little funny.

He sighed. "Just where exactly should I even start?" he pondered aloud.

It was a question more meant for himself than anyone else, but the general of Atlas seemed to take it personally. "You can start with what you really are and why you're here," he said hotly, his fists almost tightening audibly.

Jaune couldn't help but sigh again. "Firstly, I just want to say… that I'm on your side. As for what I am, I am human. Just as much as you three… well, except more so than maybe you, what with the metal and all." He smiled just a little sheepishly at that last part as it was directed towards the general.

He watched through his Aura Vision as the man's aura flared up with surprise and then something akin to anger. His grey aura now did well to highlight through his clothes and skin the robotic arm and torso that he had.

Was the general some kind of cyborg?

"That's great to know, but it doesn't really answer the questions James asked," Glynda said tersely. Jaune looked in time to see the woman fold her arms across her chest. "Why exactly are you here? When you were first hired here, you said you wished to watch over your sister from afar. Had that been a lie?"

Jaune shook his head fiercely and he could feel his own eyes narrow drastically. "No," he said firmly. "That was definitely true – I wish to watch over my sister. It's just… there's a bit more to it than just that…"

"Then start explaining it all to us," Glynda retorted.

"But first, just where exactly is your… 'friend?'" Ozpin then asked.

Jaune didn't even feel the need to answer that question. Because before he could so much as form words in his mind…

 _I'm right here, atop his very form._

His friend spoke in that thought-like way of his.

If Jaune was being honest with himself, there was something kind of funny about how the three very tough and clearly strong people around him flinched at the sudden words.

"Please just let him stretch a bit," he said a little humorously, but in a way meant to convey he meant no harm. He hoped they picked up on that, otherwise he was screwed.

His 'coat' then began to slowly melt off of his very body and converted into a fog-like form that spread out and around all of them before melding itself to the darkness of the entire room. The green tinted lights that this area had were promptly smothered out unintentionally by his friend's action, leaving the room in what was undoubtedly total darkness.

Or at least, Jaune thought so. Hard to tell since all he could actually see was aura. But judging by the reactions of his three interrogators, it seemed that this is what had just happened. And he only knew of the tinted lights thanks to some quiet commentary from his friend from much earlier during their waiting period.

"What is this?! What the hell did you just do?!" James demanded. Jaune saw him put a hand inside his coat and as he did this, the general's aura immediately flooded into and highlighted the form of a large pistol.

 _Do not be alarmed. I am merely 'stretching a bit,' I believe the saying is._

"Er, more like 'just unwinding,' but I guess that works too," Jaune corrected.

"So it can actually change form…" Jaune had to strain his ears to hear these words that Glynda muttered under her breath. Much earlier, when the Grimm attack on Vale had been confirmed to have ended, his friend had shifted from his physically manifested state back to the form of a coat. It had surprised Glynda at the time, who had bore witness to this, but Jaune supposed she hadn't been expecting the blackness to be capable of further shifting like this.

"And so… who exactly would your friend here be, Mr. Arc?" Of the three people surrounding him, only Ozpin still sounded calm. A little impressed, but still very much calm. "And most importantly, just how does it related to what we wish to know?"

"My friend and I are working together to stop the one that I believe you sometimes call 'the Queen.' Or I suppose you'd know her much better as Salem," Jaune began, feeling a little nervous as he said all that. Prior to now, he never would've dreamed of actually saying this to them and so he had no way of knowing how they'd react.

Judging by how stock still all three of them suddenly became, he could say with certainty that if nothing else, he'd stupefied them.

"As for what my friend is, w-well…" Now here was the tricky part. In all honesty, the truth was simple but explaining it could be a little complicated, especially since the explanation ties into… well, ties into everything that makes the world the way it is today.

Thankfully, his friend decided to spare him the trouble of saying it. And oh, how bad Jaune felt for inwardly laughing at how three of the most powerful people in the world reacted to his comrade's extremely few yet no less succinct words, the very darkness in the room that he now occupied shuddering with the words.

 _I'm God._

* * *

Ozpin, upon hearing those two simple words, literally froze in place. As did James and Glynda from what he could see. He considered it a good thing he didn't have his signature coffee mug present for this meeting, otherwise he'd have dropped it right now from the shock.

And that would've been bad – he really loved his mug, so many good memories.

But that small point aside… had this thing really gone and said what it had just said?!

 _Or rather, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I am one half of what you would call 'God.'_

"…You're lying," James spoke up now, the general regaining his usual steel-like demeanor, unbothered by the fact that he was speaking to a being that, if nothing else, was extremely powerful given that it had beaten a maiden.

 _I don't lie. Admittedly, I do not always tell the whole truth, but I never lie or twist the facts around. I say what I believe it necessary and go from there._

Ozpin looked to Jaune Arc, who now seemed content to simply stand there and let his comrade speak. From what he could observe, the blond young man didn't seem surprised at all by what the blackness around them was saying. Nor did the blond look like he disagreed.

The blind young man seemed to know what the blackness was talking about. And it seemed that he actually _believed_ what it was saying to.

Ozpin's grip on his cane tightened just a little in worry.

"Then would you mind further explaining what you just said? We find ourselves feeling a little lost here," he asked of it.

The entire room had gone almost pitch black when the blackness had 'unwound' just a moment ago and now it seemed to slither about like some kind of serpent. It was _audibly_ moving about now, and this simple action was enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck. Looking for just a split second to James and Glynda, he saw that they too looked a little unsettled by the motions if the way they subtly gripped their weapons were anything to go by.

 _Know this first: what I am about to tell you all… it is the truth. And it will change your view on what you thought was fact._

"We'll see about that," Ozpin retorted, but not unkindly.

The blackness around them made a sound that could've been a hum. And for that one instant, not even Ozpin felt safe. Something about it just kept off alarm bells in his mind. Was it simply an effect of it existing in this fog-like form? Or was it actually preparing some form of attack?

He looked to Jaune again. The blond remained in a fairly lax position, with only the nervousness he'd had from the very start present in his otherwise slightly slouched stance. It didn't seem like anything was going to happen… but nevertheless, he just had to be sure.

 _Several eons ago, when this planet had only barely begun to form, it hadn't simply been due to scientific processes. A sort of 'Planetary Will' that had existed even when the materials for this world had barely formed had been what had ultimately made the planet. And it was this very same 'Will' that had given rise to life upon this world. From the smallest of bacteria to humanity itself, this 'Will' is what is responsible for the planet and life itself upon it. I suppose you could call it some type of 'Force,' or 'Gaia' or simply a type of 'God' that predates words._

"A-And…" Glynda began now, the blonde deputy headmistress looking unsure of what to think thus far. "Are you, perhaps, this 'Will?' This… 'Gaia' or 'God?'"

 _Yes and no. I believe there is something called a Bootstrap Paradox: 'Gods are created by the beliefs of humans,' 'Humans are guided by the Gods.' Which is first? In this case, the answer would be 'Both.' I am a very part of the 'Will' that made this world, therefore I predate humanity itself. However, I wasn't actually 'born' from the Will until humanity, in its beginning, had so strongly believed in the existence of a god. In other words, I didn't gain my sentience and therefore my identity until humanity at the time had wished for a god._

Ozpin felt himself on the verge of stumbling back. It took considerable willpower to keep from doing this. Glynda wasn't so lucky, the blonde woman that he'd known for so long looking so utterly lost right now. As for James, the man's constant grip on his gun had gone completely slack and his skin was losing what little color it had to naturally start with.

"And this is where things start getting a bit trickier… yet also begin to be relevant to our, ah, situation here," Jaune suddenly said.

Ozpin couldn't help but twitch microscopically at the blond man's words, having been so blown away by what he'd just heard that he hadn't quite been prepared for the young man to speak up so suddenly. Out of his periphery vision, he saw James' grip on his gun regain its strength.

"Wait," Ozpin himself then said. "I and others… we've come to learn that humanity and by extension the Grimm were made thanks to two brothers – gods in and of themselves. What of this story?"

 _A distortion of the truth, formed over many millennia. Written records were never kept far back then and word of mouth can only prove to be so accurate for so long. I believe the 'two brothers' were based on myself and the other half… the other half that I believe you will find quite relevant._

"In what way?"

 _In all this time, only one god had ever actually been formed from humanity's beliefs and the 'Will.' I am but one half of this god – the 'Power.' The other half could simply be dubbed as the 'Mind.' And for many centuries following our 'birth,' we simply focused on observing humanity, trying to learn and grow ourselves, more so in the case of my other half._

 _We saw all that humanity had to offer, both the good and the bad. We saw them love. We saw them hate. We saw them help. We saw them hurt. But most importantly… we saw them fear. Despite how much they believed in and worshipped one god or another, they also feared god, believing that sinning against god would result in divine retribution. And more than that, they feared their own inherent darkness, the bad that they were naturally capable of as intelligent beings… much like how humanity is like nowadays too._

 _That said, they rejected their own inherent darkness, their own evil and in doing so rejected what was essentially a part of their very beings, much like how I and the 'Mind' were ultimately sentient parts of the Will. Humanity had started off complete, whole… and then they seemed to 'splinter' and break apart. And although my other half and I could not really feel emotion, this was something we couldn't bear to see. So we tried to indirectly help humanity out._

"Help humanity out?" James muttered out of the blue. "What do you mean?"

 _We, or rather, my other half had taken that very same splintering darkness of humanity and fully tore it away from them as gently as possible. And then my other half used that darkness to give rise to new beings, ones that would test mankind._

Ozpin felt his eyes go almost comically wide. Only marginally did he notice Glynda and James do the same in response. His grip on his cane came almost completely undone and it nearly fell to the floor.

"You can't mean…?!" Glynda began to say. "You're telling us that what this other half of yours made was-!"

 _The Grimm._

* * *

 **Originally, I had intended to end the chapter at the 'I'm God' line, but decided that doing so would've made this too short and overall unfulfilling. Heh, at the same time, I didn't want to go packing in too much content in just one go since that would've left me planning out the next chapter again.**

 **That being said, what do you guys think? Shocking? Predictable? Somewhere in between, maybe? Please let me know!**

 **Ah, but don't think that all will be revealed to Ozpin, Glynda, and James so soon – there's still plenty more surprises that I have in store for both the characters and you! So please continue to look forward to what else I have to reveal! And don't worry, Cinder's situation will be revealed as well in the next chapter!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	28. Chapter 28

Man, I'm so antsy nowadays whenever I'm writing these chapters! Always so much that I want to put in them, but I have to constantly rein myself in, ha ha ha! Probably because, to put it simply, this is the turning point of the fic in general, with everything that comes next for sure not being from RWBY canon. Speaking of which, what did you guys think of volume 4 of RWBY in general? I quite liked it for all of the character development.

Ah and on a side note, I'm glad that many of you seemed to like the twists I had revealed in the previous chapter! Hope that this chapter and future ones will likewise surprise and entertain you!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 28

James Ironwood was a man that prided himself on his self-control. Yes, he will admit that sometimes this control of his can slip in a variety of ways, but never had he ever fully displayed the entirety of any one emotion, at least not publicly and even rarely among his closest friends, which he counted Ozpin and Glynda among.

But now… now he couldn't help but gape like a child that had just heard something life-altering. How could he not, when what he had just been told was indeed life-altering, if only in that it challenged everything he knew.

This thing that surrounded them, this 'God' as it had called itself, it had gone and revealed in just the span of a few moments details that completely flipped upside down what had once been considered fairly established facts.

And from what it had just said right now, it looked like things were only going to start sounding even crazier.

"T-The Grimm…" he couldn't help but mutter, repeating what the blackness around him and everyone else had just said.

He detected movement out of the corner of his eyes at this point and in his frazzled state of mind, it took him a millisecond longer than it should have for him to realize it was just this Jaune Arc man shuffling about a little.

Through now gritted teeth, James gripped his firearm firmly, still not quite willing to trust the young man in the wake of all this. For now, however, he kept his ears completely focused on the words that would be coming next.

 _Correct._

"You said just now that they had been formed by your other half… from the darkness it had taken from us – humanity," Ozpin said and with such a remarkably calm voice too. Bless his heart, he was doing such a good job at keeping his composure as opposed to himself, the Atlas general silently thought. "Can you elaborate on that? And on this 'testing humanity' part as well."

 _To put it as simply as possible, the Grimm were essentially born from humanity itself. Molded into being by my other half, they may have been… but the darkness that they're formed from came directly from humans. Ah, while I am on this topic, allow me to explain something else too about them…_

"What would that be?" Glynda now spoke up, the woman doing her best to look strong and composed. James could only eye her for a second and mentally applaud her efforts.

 _Their appearances. Have you ever wondered why the Grimm look the way they do? Why they look like wolves and bears and birds and more? It is because back when humanity was still so very new and young, they had been hunter-gatherers. Lacking any type of real technology and weaponry beyond simple clubs and bows, they too had also been unaware of aura, or rather they'd been unaware of what aura was capable of when unlocked. But they couldn't unlock it at the time and as such lacked the passive boost that unlocked aura provides save for some increase in their natural defenses._

 _Now with that said, this meant that the animals that roamed the land naturally had a physical advantage in one form or another over humanity. As such, humans feared the very same animals that they hunted for food or sport, knowing that in one on one encounters, they were at an often fatal disadvantage should their prey become violent._

 _They feared the wolves – wolves traveled in packs and knew how to use their numbers to their advantage, their relatively small sizes more than made up for with tactics and pure savagery._

 _They feared the bears – sometimes clumsy, they had a size advantage and great strength, with thick bodies that also provided a great deal of defense._

 _They feared the birds, particularly the ravens – they often attacked relentlessly when provoked and would also circle about in areas that were often littered with the bodies of their fallen allies._

 _They feared the scorpions – sometimes small, sometimes large in size, they could hide at night with their dark shells and should they believe themselves threatened, sting and inject a target with their venom._

 _They feared the elephants – they were massive and tough and possessed equally immense strength. Normally docile, they would rage and stampede if angered or wounded. And it was usually only then that some unlucky souls would realize just how fast they could move if they wanted._

 _It is this very same fear that my other half had used to provide a majority of the Grimm with their forms._

James once more felt himself physically reeling. He could see Ozpin and Glynda in the same boat as him too as the three of them digested what had just been said.

The very physical appearance of the Grimm. Never once had he questioned why exactly they look the way they did. To him and to many others, the Grimm were simply the Grimm, the all but omnipresent creatures of darkness – literally darkness – having long since been another part of life.

And now here is this entity going out of its way to explain it all.

And it wasn't done just yet. Far from it, it would seem.

 _As for a number of the other Grimm – the Wyverns, the Griffons, the Geists, and Nuckelavees – they were made from the various fairy tales, fables, and myths that were formed around that time as well, my other half having used the ensuing fear and nightmares of more fantastical creatures to create their forms. Diversity is, after all, a strong point to have._

Well, that was certainly unexpected, even by the new standards that the general was starting to now form in the wake of all this new information. And to think, he'd sort of begun to think about that too.

But with all that now said… onto something much more pressing.

"That… that's all quite interesting to know, but can you finally get to the 'testing humanity' part?" James said slowly and in as polite a voice as he could manage. This was certainly a hard thing to accomplish; being 'nice' to potentially dangerous people or entities in this case wasn't exactly a strong point of his given the obvious rarity of these kinds of situations.

Again, if his somewhat gruff tone offended the entity, it didn't seem to show it. However, it looked like Jaune Arc was now beginning to look just a tad bit put off by his continuing hostility, if the way the young blond man's face grimaced was anything to go by.

 _Again, a fairly simple thing to outright state… but to explain it would be a little more difficult perhaps. But to address your unasked questions, the Grimm were ultimately made with one goal in mind: to test if humanity has what it takes to accept their own darkness… and become whole once more._

James couldn't find any words to say to that. None at all. Like the entity had just said, its response had been simple enough, but the man was finding it hard to understand.

He slowly let go of his firearm and now began to massage his temple, feeling a headache coming on from the huge influx of information and ensuing chaotic thoughts.

"Become whole once more," he heard Ozpin mutter, the Beacon headmaster looking perhaps the most perplexed he'd ever seen the man. Ozpin lowered his head in deep thought before looking back up at the darkness all around them a moment later. "I understand your words, but not quite your meaning. Why have the Grimm attack and even slay humanity with such ferocity over these many, many centuries?"

 _Because it is only in the midst of struggles that humanity seems truly capable of coming to terms with their issues. Whether it be a personal issue or economical or political or something else entirely, it had always been through one struggle or another that it was resolved, never peacefully, never easily. My other half and I had therefore decided to do likewise. Unfortunately, when my other half had made the Grimm based on the aforementioned creatures, it had also copied their instincts as best as it could… and ended up overcharging them, I suppose you could say. As a result, the 'Mind's influence was needed to rein in the Grimm, keep them from fully succumbing to the instincts and purpose they'd been made with and ultimately instruct and direct them as needed whilst my existence had been meant to serve as an enactor that better focuses their instincts so that the Grimm can better function as a cohesive force. Together, with my other half providing genuine intelligence and orders and myself focusing their instincts as much as possible, the Grimm would challenge humanity regularly to test them and see if they were able to accept the parts of themselves that they'd long since given up._

Now beginning to regain his composure by the minute, James couldn't help but scoff. "Admirable efforts… but considering the sheer number of incidents of death and destruction caused by the Grimm over the centuries, I'd say you're not doing that great a job. Unless there's a reason for that too."

As general of Atlas' military, he was required to be as knowledgeable as possible on not just present matters, but also matters from the past. As such, he'd long since read up on the many incidents of the past. While he was no Oobleck, James liked to consider himself an expert on history concerning events with the Grimm. And considering the sheer number of towns and villages that had been utterly wiped out, he could only feel a little angry at what this 'God' had gone and said just now.

 _It is regrettable, but death is a natural part of life. And it is only in life-or-death conflicts that humanity can thrive and strife forward. Death is therefore especially inevitable in this trial. Once again, my other half had set up 'rules' for the Grimm so that they may function somewhat well without our influence. To spare you time and complications, these 'rules' basically kept the Grimm to only 'test the waters' every now and then to ensure that humanity remained vigilant and even then, they would only target the areas that were isolated so that the humans there would feel 'the pressure' as some like to call it. And then the Grimm would launch a full scale attack meant to make or break the humans caught up in it._

 _Some humans, a scant few, would seemingly come to understand the purpose of the trial, but would unfortunately die in the process. Those that survived would often not realize the trial's purpose and continue to deny their darkness. Most others would simply give up and die in the attack. However, those that did come to terms with their darkness and did survive the actual attack would no longer be targeted by the Grimm afterwards and my other half and I have noted a marked change in their behavior afterwards – much more willing to operate in between the 'black' and 'white' lines that you use to describe your morality often… all while still firmly being 'good,' at least what you define as good… which did please us, for what it is worth._

"What it's worth…" James heard Glynda mutter in complete disbelief.

He couldn't blame her one bit. This particular bit of information was beginning to piss him off. This thing was just so casually speaking of having indirectly caused God knows how many deaths and didn't seem even remotely bothered by it all.

Did it truly care for humanity and was simply operating by an entirely different set of morals? Or was its concern for them merely some kind of façade despite its words…?

In either case though… it was starting to tick him off badly. "So what? Do you really think the result-?!"

"-Do you really think the results justify what you've done?"

James could only blink. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd ever been cut off like that. But that wasn't what surprised him.

What did surprise him was who had done so.

And so he could only look on in surprise alongside Ozpin and Glynda towards the end of the hall, where the interrupter stood.

"Do you really think everything you've done was alright?" spoke one very hurt but very angry Amber.

* * *

Amber was, to put it mildly, feeling pretty livid.

She'd been unconscious for what felt like hours and having just woken up a handful of minutes ago, she'd still been hurting pretty bad despite having been bandaged up.

This still hadn't stopped her from sensing that thing practically all around her and that had given her the resolve to get up out of bed and wander out here to where her new allies were listening to that damned creature's answers.

Needless to say, she'd been shocked to hear all of that – more than shocked. But anger had managed to worm its way forward in her heart and it had overpowered her shock enough to make her finally reveal her presence to everyone present.

She vaguely noted the blond young man – who seemed to be connected to this entity – eyeing her in amazement. "You're actually up already…." He seemed to not be _too_ surprised by her recovery ability, but that wasn't her current focus though.

She ignored the looks of surprise and concern on Ozpin's and Glynda's faces and looked up towards the blackness that wriggled all around them.

"Answer me!" she said hoarsely. "You think what you've done was truly good?"

 _The Fall Maiden… I'm impressed to see you're already up. Impressive. I do hope I haven't hurt you too much…_

"Save it! Now answer me, damn it!"

 _Very well. To word it differently, you're essentially accusing me of being self-righteous, yes? From your perspective – from the perspective of humanity in general, no doubt – it would certainly seem that way. I acknowledge that much. However, if you are looking for regret from me, I'm afraid that isn't going to happen. Emotion, at least how humanity defines it, is something still very unknown to me, though I am learning by the day thanks to Jaune. But even then, regret or shame simply aren't emotions I will be feeling over this – I literally am incapable of it in this case, for this is my very purpose, my very function for being._

At that explanation, said so calmly, Amber could only seethe inwardly. But she withheld her tongue for the moment, the entity's words hitting her like Dust bombs.

The damned thing was right, after all. Having woken up in time to hear parts of its origins, she knew for sure now that whatever sort of morality it operated by was drastically different from how humans in general operated. What she and others would undoubtedly see as horrific slaughter, this thing saw as another saddening yet expected failure before moving on, not unlike how people reading about some news online might feel a little sad but quickly move past it.

Nonetheless, she still felt a need to argue, to go even beyond that and even attack that thing, but her hurting body squashed that sudden and odd desire with ease.

Which gave the 'God' enough time and reason to continue speaking in general again.

 _Now then, with hopefully all of the relevant details now made known to you, we must speak to you of the threat at hand. A threat that I believe you all seem aware of._

"Salem…" the blond guy muttered, just loud enough for all of them to hear.

And contrary to what the entity said, Amber had no idea who this Salem was. As such, all she could do was scrunch up her eyebrows in confusion.

But it sure seemed like the other three people here knew who this person was, if the way Ozpin and Glynda grimaced and the way the other guy – military by the looks of it – swore under his breath were anything to go by.

"So you do know of her…" Ozpin began slowly. "What precisely can you tell us about her?"

 _I will spare you all her origins for the time being – it's not quite relevant to actually dealing with her… and you already know firsthand how she came to be the way she is, even if the reason for it all is unknown to you._

That last part seemed aimed directly at Ozpin. Amber could've sworn it was just a trick of her eyes, but it looked like the Beacon headmaster just gripped his cane with dangerous force.

 _What you should know is that she has usurped my other half. She is, or rather has been for the past century, the new 'Mind' of the Grimm and can control them as she sees fit. They are her eyes and ears and will act on whatever information or orders she gives them, assuming she herself does not take direct control of them._

A long silence followed after that. Amber, still feeling so very much in the dark about this Salem woman, wasn't exempt from the rising tension as the implications of everything she's heard thus far swam through her mind.

If this Salem truly could control the Grimm as well as the original 'Mind' could, then…

"…Then what's stopping her from simply commanding all of the Grimm to swarm and crush the kingdoms?" asked Glynda. "For that matter, why hadn't she done so already? She's had a century to do so."

 _Because of the very same 'rules' my other half had originally set up. They are absolute and can only be overturned by my other half, who Salem had forcibly merged with long ago and absorbed its consciousness. The 'rules' prevent full-scale attacks from the entirety of the Grimm until the time of the real attacks, the actual trial…. And my other half had made sure to schedule those for only once every century. The forced merge between them had occurred after the previous attack and so until the next one, she cannot bring all of the Grimm to bear._

"I'm sensing a 'but' in there somewhere," the military man said with narrowed eyes.

 _But once it is time for the next attack to commence, she will be able to fully control all of the Grimm at once to exterminate humanity, something that we all do not want. Once the trial starts again, she will have approximately forty-eight hours to carry out this extermination event before the trial reaches its end as per the 'rules.' Furthermore, while she cannot launch such vast attacks with the Grimm until then, that doesn't mean she can't send out small forces to crush small settlements or weaken larger ones… much like what had happened earlier today. And of course, she could also rely on others to aid her, something that she dislikes but is still willing to do if it will benefit. I believe you know that better than most, headmaster._

Amber wouldn't have been surprised if Ozpin's cane broke at that very moment; the headmaster seemed to be just that worked up over that last comment, his grip tightening ever more on the object in his hands, though his expression still remained unnervingly calm in comparison aside from a slight narrowing of the eyes.

"I certainly do," Ozpin said with a remarkably neutral tone. He then took a moment to seemingly regain his composure and then Amber watched as the man slowly eyed the rest of them, his eyes locking with hers just several seconds later. Then, he addressed the blackness around them. "I believe I can speak for all us when I say that we believe what you're saying… no matter how unbelievable it all still seems. As you said earlier, you have no real reason to lie to us about any of this, not anymore that is… so with that said, just when exactly will the trial be commencing then?"

 _By the end of this month – little more than three weeks away now._

Barely three weeks away… of all the things she's just heard, it was this bit that she could scarcely believe for some reason. Maybe because it was just a little too damn close to happening as of now.

And looking once more to the others, they appeared to be thinking along this same line as well.

"Three weeks… it'll take that long just to fully repair all of the damage done today! Not to mention the time needed to prepare for it in the first place…" Glynda muttered in outrage.

 _Which is why we now ask to join force. This is something that Jaune had originally wished to do in the first place… but I had little faith in such a thing working at the time. However, circumstances have changed now – you two, Ozpin and Glynda, have known Jaune now for a fair while. You have an idea of the sort of person he is like and therefore should now know that he – and by extension, I – do not mean any harm. Salem having also finally made a move is something significant given her lack of direct action up until now. None of us no longer have the time to work on our own._

"So… what do you say?" Jaune suddenly spoke up. Amber turned to face him just in time to see the young man sporting an expression that equal parts excited and nervous. "If we all pool our power and whatever resources we have together, I think we can stop Salem for sure!"

Amber microscopically looked out of the corner of her eyes to see how the other three had reacted. They all looked fairly taken aback by the blond man suddenly talking, but not angry or anything.

They seemed to genuinely consider his words, but something was clearly keeping them from just responding outright.

And Amber knew exactly what that something was. After all, the words were directed to her just as much as the others. And it was the exact same 'something' that was preventing her from saying anything right away as well.

And she decided to go and just state it.

"There's still a lot that I think you're not telling us," she said, feeling her eyes narrow in the process. "Any reason why you're holding out?"

Her suspicion was confirmed when the young man – Jaune – flinched ever so slightly. He even started rubbing the back of his head a little sheepishly. "Noticed that, huh?" He chuckled awkwardly.

"Mr. Arc," Ozpin began. "While we do appreciate now all that has been revealed to us so far, if there's more that we may need to know, we'd rather know it now."

… _There is more to tell. But it isn't relevant to stopping Salem. I assure you that it isn't of any danger, at least not in regards to Salem._

Everyone there looked all around them at the blackness in confusion, Amber included. Just what exactly was that supposed to mean?

"He's right," Jaune spoke up. "There is more to tell, a lot more. But it won't necessarily help us beat Salem. Headmaster, you should already know the sort of abilities that she herself possesses from long ago. They wouldn't have changed much over time. And now my friend had told you all of her control over the Grimm so now that should just about cover her overall threat."

"And just how can you be so sure of that unless we ourselves hear it?" the military man retorted without missing a beat.

That made Jaune's face scrunch up a bit, as if to consider his words. But ultimately, the blond held firm. "We'd rather keep the rest of the info to ourselves if that's alright. But if it does turn out it may be relevant in some way, we _will_ be sure to inform you all. I promise this on my family's name."

The military man looked ready to retort yet again, but Glynda interrupted him before he could start. "And just how can we hold you to that?"

"An Arc never goes back on his word. Ever." The words were stated so firmly by the young man that for a moment, they were all rendered genuinely speechless.

But the resulting silence was broken by Amber, just as something came to mind. "Well, that's great and all… but just one other thing: the one who stole part-."

"-of your Fall Maiden power, right?" Jaune cut in, offering an apologetic smile as he did so. "Yeah, we're aware of her."

"Wait, what?" Ozpin of all people said suddenly. "We had our suspicions that someone had managed to obtain a part of her power, but how do you know of it?"

 _We try to stay 'in the loop' I believe the phrase is on various things that are a part of the overall problem. And since this woman in particular is acting on Salem's behalf, I have long since seen fit to watch her from afar. Alas, I couldn't monitor her all the time back then nor could I accurately predict every move that the pawn made up until now. But ever since she's come to Beacon, keeping an eye on her had become much easier._

This made everyone's eyes go wide, the military man in general looking especially shocked. "Wait, the woman is here?! Right now?!"

Amber wasn't anywhere near as shocked, having detected her long ago and having told Ozpin and Glynda of this. Still, the fact that this entity had been keeping an eye on her yet hadn't done anything about her left them all reeling a bit.

"And why exactly haven't you done anything about her yet?!" she demanded.

"Well, we hadn't been sure if she had some sort of contingency plan in place in case something did happen to her. So my friend here just focused on keeping watch of her and determining if there was something already in place," Jaune explained. "Thankfully, it doesn't look like that was ever the case. And I doubt she'll be much of a problem for a while anyways."

"And why is that?!" Amber all but yelled.

 _The power of the silver eyes earlier today… let us just say that even though the pawn is only a partial maiden, the silver eyes still would've had an effect upon her. A significant effect._

Amber shivered suddenly, remembering vaguely the odd sensation that explosion of light had given her earlier, just before the 'God' before them all now had protected her from whatever it had been.

"And just what sort of effect are we talking about here?"

* * *

Pain. Pain was all she knew right now.

She could scarcely move about even now, moaning quietly all the while as both Emerald and Mercury supported her.

Cinder hadn't quite been sure exactly of what had happened. But what she knew for sure is that that burst of light earlier had been far from good for her. The instant it had made contact with her, it had felt as if every nerve ending in her body had been lit aflame, her blood boiling and her very skin cooking as this had happened.

She'd barely been able to stay conscious and focused enough to call Emerald over to where she was at before she'd outright passed out.

That had been hours ago.

Now that she was awake and having been tended to by one of the various doctors running around this hub they've set up, it was all she could do to keep from screaming in agony and rage.

"H-Hey, don't force yourself," Emerald said as she had Cinder's left arm draped over her shoulder while Mercury had her right arm.

Cinder ignored the words as she attempted to walk under her own power from where she'd been lying down to somewhere outside the tent. Nowhere in particular, just out of the tent in general. But it proved useless – so much pain was still wracking her body that walking was proving to be impossible right now. And the way her feet refused to walk in anything even remotely resembling a straight line wasn't helping her.

"What… did you… tell… the doctor?" she managed to say through pained gasps. She was admittedly curious that the doctor hadn't apparently commented on the burns that now were all over her body.

"Said you got knocked into a shop and some of the Grimm unintentionally set off a spark in it. And the gas pipe was leaking, so…" Mercury began.

Cinder could only nod microscopically. A decent enough excuse. "H-How long… until I… recover?"

She turned her head just a few centimeters to her left and then to her right so that she may see their expressions. Even this miniscule action caused her pain to flair up even worse than it already was. She soldiered through it just enough to see the reluctant expressions on their faces.

"It'll be a while," Emerald finally said. "The burns themselves aren't all that bad. The doc said with aura and the proper treatment thereafter, they'll fade in a few months time… but the damage done to your nerves though… he isn't sure if it'll ever heal up enough to let you move properly again…. He recommends giving up being a huntress." The last few words were naturally due to the doctor believing them to be trainees.

Cinder's stomach felt like it was inverting itself somehow. Such was the sensation of shock that she was now feeling. The burns in and of themselves she couldn't really care for. But the nerves… if they have been affected that badly then that meant she wouldn't be able to do much for a long while now and that was assuming the damage ever fully healed.

That meant she could no longer fight effectively, let alone fight at all. That meant she could no longer even do something as simple as walking without feeling immense pain.

That meant that she wouldn't be able to do much of _anything_ anytime soon… which in turn meant that she was no longer going to be of any use to Salem.

And that one thought shocked and hurt her more than everything else she was currently experiencing.

She kept her head down now so that her two most loyal minions wouldn't see her current expression. Not even she was sure what expression she was making, however, but she just knew that whatever it was would shatter her image completely.

If there was even much of an image left to start with.

* * *

Jaune surveyed the four listeners as critically as he could. He could tell by how their aura rippled and moved that they more or less believed his friend, which was definitely a good thing since it would've been pretty easy for them to dismiss everything said thus far as false, especially since due to how long it's been since a lot of this stuff had occurred, there were no physical records of any of this.

Therefore, he was most thankful for how truthful his friend was being with them even though they were, as the Fall Maiden had just stated, holding back a lot of information still. But it shouldn't have much of a negative impact on combating Salem and the Grimm.

Still… he had to wonder if now they'd be open to actually working together now with the revelation about the one who'd stolen part of Amber's maiden power. "So… can we start working together?" Jaune asked a little hesitantly.

He felt the Fall Maiden stare at him whilst the others stayed silent, no doubt still thinking over everything they've been told. "Are you sure that she will no longer be a threat?" Naturally, she spoke of the 'thief' that had taken part of her power.

Jaune nodded firmly. "Given time, she could probably make a full recovery, but that is pretty improbable. And by the time such a thing happens, it'll be many, many months from now. She won't be hurting anyone directly for a long while."

He watched as the maiden's aura, which had been rippling a little sporadically from shock and anger, now slow to a much calmer pace. "…I see." There was a pause and during this moment, Jaune noticed the woman's eyes slowly look up towards his friend. "…There's still a lot I'd like to ask – emphasis on 'a lot' – but for now… well, let's just focus on this Salem first, I'd say."

"Likewise," spoke Ozpin now. The headmaster then sighed heavily. "We've certainly been told a lot in a short span of time and it will take us perhaps a little longer to fully comprehend it all… but it certainly seems like you two truly don't mean any harm to the students. So for now, we will trust you. Glynda? James? What say you?"

"Agreed," Glynda then said with a bit of a huff. "I still don't quite like how exactly you have done things so far, but I'm willing to overlook it if it'll mean properly dealing with the current threat."

That lifted Jaune's heart more than he'd been expecting. Then again, considering how the deputy headmistress had essentially been the one professor he'd spent the most time around, it was to be expected in hindsight.

Now the only one left…

Jaune focused on James Ironwood, noticing the others doing likewise. Even the blackness did so too, Jaune feeling through their connection the entity's 'eyes' locking onto the Atlas man.

James grunted loud enough for all of them to hear and he played with his collar a little from what Jaune could discern. "I'll admit that I can be a paranoid man," he began. "So I wouldn't say that I'm willing to trust you two that much… but 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' phrase seems to be in effect here. So until Salem is brought down, I will consider us allies so long as our goals continue to coincide. But if it turns out you two are hiding something else from us that would jeopardize lives, then I don't care who or what you are – I will take you down myself if necessary."

Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at that. He could even detect his friend feeling something akin to bemusement too. What James was saying was merely bravado, a front meant to show that he was still in control of something. Understandable given how they'd just flipped what he once knew on its head, but in the end, it wasn't much of a threat. At least, Jaune sure hoped that was the case.

But that aside…

"So then we're all going to be fighting against Salem together?" Jaune knew it was a redundant question, but he wanted to make absolutely sure.

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"Of course."

"For now."

These quick and succinct reconfirmations from Amber, Ozpin, Glynda, and James respectively were enough to relieve Jaune of the stress he'd been feeling for a long time now, so much so that he almost felt like crying.

But he withheld this and settled for smiling wide like a child on Christmas day.

However, deep down, he still couldn't stop himself from worrying. Because there was no doubt in his mind that Salem still had a few other cards left to play. He could only hope now that he'd stacked the deck enough to counter whatever she'd do next.

All of humanity was counting on this, after all.

* * *

 **Another heavy exposition chapter here. Hope it was just as enjoyable for you guys to read as the previous chapter!**

 **So now with these two particular chapters done, the next several chapters will be getting right back into actual story progression and action. There's still plenty more to reveal, but it won't be in the same 'filler/exposition heavy' way that these two chapters were in. I'm sure you will enjoy what else will be thrown your way, you guys!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	29. Chapter 29

Sorry for the wait! I'd spent longer than usual working on the chapter for my original novel since now I've decided that the chapters can start being a bit longer now, ha ha ha. Funny how I bounced back from short chapters there. Hopefully I can just keep the quality consistent and increase it over time, but only time will actually tell on that front…

Ah, on a random side note, would anyone happen to know of two visual novels called Silverio Vendetta and Silverio Trinity? I found out about them fairly recently and I'm really curious about how each route in both games play out in addition to the sort of abilities that the characters have. The setting that both VNs share is definitely really interesting too – could make for a really good fanfic one day, ha ha ha. Alas, I can't speak or read Japanese and there's no English translation that I'm aware of… can anyone point me in the right direction though? If so, then much appreciated in advance!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 29

Jaune all but collapsed onto his bed, his mind taxed in ways that he'd never thought possible. A groan of immense proportions escaped his mouth in the process, filling his own ears to the point of being nearly deafening.

"So hectic…" he muttered to himself.

It's been nearly a dozen hours or so since he'd spoken to Ozpin, Glynda, James Ironwood, and the Fall Maiden Amber about the threat Salem truly poses. As such, it was still pretty early this morning given how late it'd been in the day when he'd spoken to them all yesterday.

As expected and even desired, the four individuals he and his friend had spoken to were already trying to devise plans to deal with Salem now that they were much more aware of what was going on. The blond young man was most glad to know that they were taking what they'd just learned so seriously.

However.

That being said… he definitely hadn't been expecting them to essentially call for another quick meeting this morning to reconfirm some certain things… which they – that being, Ozpin and Glynda – planned to subtly tell the headmasters of the other academies. That… honestly hadn't been his nor his friend's intention in telling them in the first place. Not necessarily because they didn't want all of the extra help, but rather that Salem was mainly situated somewhere on this continent and not elsewhere. As such, unless the other headmasters planned to personally come here to help, all this would accomplish was merely giving them a heads up of the onslaught to come. As well as now no doubt making them question just how and why all of this information was popping up now.

That wasn't even getting into Ironwood rallying his army in some manner that he knew not, the general apparently still not fully trusting him enough to confide in him. Which was fair enough; Jaune hadn't been expecting the general to suddenly welcome him with open arms anyways.

But what did tucker him out quite a bit was the fact that earlier in the morning meeting, Ozpin and Glynda had oh so subtly tried to squeeze him for just a bit more information, the things that neither he or his friend wished to tell right now. Not necessarily because the info they were still holding back was bad, but that revealing it now would simply be too much extra, not to mention just bad timing in general.

 _They were certainly persistent. Such a trait should serve them well._

"Mhm…."

His friend, Tenebrous as it had allowed the four to call him sometime last night following all of the explaining, commented. All Jaune could do was simply mumble an agreement.

 _Do you plan to visit your sister later? And tend to the other matter?_

Tenebrous switched tracks pretty fast there, but it was nothing new to Jaune, who kept up with the sudden shift with ease, long since used to it. "Definitely. Not that I have much choice regarding that latter one though…"

Following the morning meeting with Ozpin and Glynda, he'd bumped into Bart and Peter and had chatted with them for a little while before coming here. And during the brief chat he'd had with the two of them, Bart had pulled him aside and told him of what else had transpired during the Breach.

Specifically how the White Fang had been there, Adam Taurus leading a small group that Bart had successfully taken down though Adam had escaped…. Not to mention how said group had nearly harmed his sister.

Needless to say, that had had his heart racing from shock and fright despite having seen his sister just yesterday during the aftermath, the young blond girl more or less fine. Still, that knowledge hadn't stopped him from nearly having a heart attack when Bart had told him that and it'd taken considerable willpower to keep himself from having rushed to her dorm to check on her.

What had stopped him from doing so, aside from a gentle talking down from Bart and Peter, was the fact that in light of the Breach, classes had been canceled today which meant that virtually all of the students, tired and battered from yesterday, were getting some well-deserved extra sleep, his sister naturally included. Disturbing her deep slumber this early in the day wasn't something he wanted to do since the rest meant that her wounds were still healing up thanks to the medical attention she'd received yesterday in addition to her aura.

And it wouldn't be fair to her friends either if he'd simply barged down their door and woke them all up in the process of checking on her.

So – very reluctantly, it must be noted – he was holding off on paying Jeanne a visit until later today.

Therefore, what now held his attention the most as he continued to lie on his bed was the 'other matter' that Tenebrous had just mentioned.

Namely, the matter of one Ruby Rose and her silver eyes.

Thanks to what could only be described as a fateful encounter with both his friend and the Fall Maiden, Ruby's innate power had awakened much earlier than he and his friend would have liked. While the girl's silver eyes would certainly prove to be a benefit, now that they were awakened to some unknown extent, there was now a real possibility that Salem might just try to go after the girl in some way, the lack of a direct threat the eyes were to her aside.

Furthermore, one other aspect of this particular matter was that the girl's friend and teammate, Weiss, had seen Tenebrous and Amber. The heiress was very intelligent for her age, so Jaune didn't doubt for a second that she was internally burning up from all of the questions she must be forming by the minute. While he was certain that the girl would remain silent on the issue thanks to the stern warning Glynda had given her yesterday, it still wasn't something he'd want to rely on – after all, if the girl let word slip either by intentional design or by accident and it spread to many others, there was no telling just how the public would react to the news.

Never mind the fact that if such a scenario ever came to be, Salem would know with complete certainty that they were all planning something.

So now here he was, figuratively scratching his brain on how to handle the matter. Team RWBY had fought hard yesterday, probably even harder than most of the other students due to having had their weapons deprived for the most part, so they were likely sleeping in at the moment, though their leader was currently resting in the infirmary rather than in their dorm thanks to the severely draining awakening of her eyes.

This was something of a good thing, he supposed, since that meant one less person to try and bypass to get to Weiss. But still… just how to get to the girl? He could approach her directly, but she's with her fellow teammates/friends so much that getting her alone to speak with her would be impossible. And even if he were to ask her to spare a moment or two for a private conversation, Blake and Yang would likely ask the girl later about what the conversation was about. And strong-willed or not, Weiss would probably eventually fold under the nagging.

Using the intercom to call her out is likewise a fruitless option since classes were canceled and as such it would only stand much more than usual. Which meant he'd have to use another surrogate here… someone else to lead Weiss to him without raising the suspicion of those around her…

… _? Did you just think of something, Jaune?_

"As a matter of fact, yeah," Jaune began as he now sat up. And from beside him, he could sense his friend take on his fog-like form.

Jaune stared directly ahead at the wall for a moment before eventually speaking. "Do you think you can do me a little favor?"

When he felt Tenebrous' intrigue, he slowly began to tell the entity what he'd come up with. He just hoped Weiss wouldn't scream too much when it happened.

* * *

Amber sat alone in what had become her essential residence during her time here at Beacon. She'd been offered late last night a chance by Ozpin to move about Beacon without issue – with how things currently were like, it wouldn't have been too hard for the students and other faculty members to simply ignore her as they all recover from the events of yesterday.

But she'd refused, at least for now as she contented herself with simply stewing in her thoughts.

She'd certainly learned quite a bit last night and it left her reeling even now as she remained huddled up on her bed. The maiden winced every now and then when she shifted about, her wounds not quite fully healed yet though her aura and maiden power had certainly nearly finished the process.

Amber couldn't help but feel a little irritated, however, and for two reasons.

The first reason being that in the shock of it all last night, she'd completely forgot to ask the 'God' and that Jaune guy about why she'd reacted the way she had to it during the Breach. After all, that she would just seemingly lose control of her own body like that and try to fight that entity was definitely something worth a detailed explanation.

As for the second reason, well, she was still feeling pretty miffed towards that 'thief.' According to that 'God,' the silver eyes of that young girl had done a serious number on the woman in question, enough so that she wouldn't really pose a threat anymore… yet still, Amber couldn't help but feel uneasy about simply leaving her be for the time being.

At the very least, she'd have liked for the woman to be taken into some form of custody, where they could keep a more direct eye on her. This was a sentiment that the Atlas general, James Ironwood, had shared, but Ozpin and Glynda had surprisingly argued against it, their reason being that while the woman in question may be out of commission, she still had those two supposed 'teammates' of hers at her side. In hindsight, those two were likely her accomplices and so attempting to take away the woman would lead to a fight breaking out with those two. As long as they remained on academy grounds, such a fight could potentially lead to harm being done to the students, no matter how quickly such an encounter could be resolved.

In other words, the safety of the students, many of whom were still very tired and injured, took precedence for the time being. This was something that Amber could understand, but was still nonetheless reluctant to obey it.

Then again, if the three people in question decided to leave Beacon ground for one reason or another… well, there likely wouldn't be a problem apprehending them then. So at least that was a silver lining in her otherwise dreary little cloud.

Still, not quite something that fully sat well with her, but she could at least tolerate it.

What had her attention for the most part, however, was what was to come – the 'trial' that the entity had spoken of. For now that she thought on it, simply thinking the word was enough to subtly trigger something deep within her. She could just feel it.

"…Memories and feelings…" she then muttered suddenly, this odd feeling welling up within her bringing up the memories of yesterday, when she'd gone against that 'God.'

…it had said something about the memories and feelings of the old man, whom she and the others have helped out of his depression all that time ago. To more or less paraphrase what the entity, named Tenebrous apparently, had said yesterday, some of the old man's memories and feelings had been somehow contained within the power he'd given her and presumably to the other maidens too…

So had it been this that had made her act the way she did yesterday? Reflecting now on the words Tenebrous had said, it would most certainly be the case, but that only raised far more questions that demanded answers.

First and foremost, just how exactly had the kindly old man had been able to accomplish such a thing? For what purpose could such a thing serve? But more importantly, just why exactly did it seem like he vehemently hated Tenebrous? Had the 'God' done something personally to him? Or was the reason something else entirely?

Amber's face scrunched up as she thought deeply on this and she dearly wished she'd been able to ask it about this last night. Had it turned her down, then she could've at least asked Jaune instead, assuming the young man knew the answers to her questions. She was pretty sure he knew most if not all that Tenebrous knew, considering his complete lack of reaction to what it had said to them.

"Well, only one way to find then," she said aloud now as she headed for the elevator.

No point in just resting here, fiddling her thumbs like a confused child. If she wanted answers, then she was going to have to go and get them herself.

And if both of them tried to deny her these answers, well… she supposed she could pay them back for when Tenebrous had been flying about, annoying her.

Hell, now that she thought of it, that sounded kind of fun.

With a bit more pep in her steps, she entered the elevator.

* * *

Within the confines of their room, Emerald sat upon her bed, fiddling with her fingers. A nervous energy filled her and it was this that was preventing her from doing much of anything right now, beyond simply eyeing a certain person.

There upon her own bed lied one resting Cinder, the normally calm and collected image that the half-maiden gave off completely shattered as she fitfully tossed about in her sleep every other minute. Not that the moving about amounted to much given the severity of the damage she'd suffered yesterday.

Under what would be considered normal circumstances, Cinder would be in the infirmary, doctors tending to her wounds while medicine did her the favor of granting a peaceful sleep. But the woman, for reasons Emerald could only guess at, had all but demanded she be brought back to the dorm and so Emerald had used her semblance yesterday to do just that.

Not long after their return last night, Cinder had all but passed out and she'd yet to awaken.

And so Emerald could only look on in ever growing worry. She looked up to the woman quite a lot, Cinder having been the first and only person to give a chance. Sure, the half-maiden can certainly be a terrifying individual to work for, but for the most part she was cordial and made sure she was taken care of. So seeing the one she essentially was indebted to, someone that she'd always admired for her strength and control in such a condition wasn't doing her nerves any favors.

Emerald damn near leapt out of her skin when the door to the bathroom opened up without warning. And out walked Mercury, who'd just showered and changed.

For once, Emerald found herself wishing the young man would make one of his stupid quips, if only to find something to focus on. But to her worry, the assassin remained quiet.

Mercury wordlessly walked to his bed and unceremoniously plopped onto it, eyeing Cinder the whole time. "She's looking a little better," he finally commented.

"…Not by much," Emerald responded.

Thanks to a combination of her aura and the portion of the maiden power she'd taken, Cinder's burns were looking noticeably better compared to yesterday, but it would still take at least several more days before the burns could fade away to a near completely gone state. So in this respect, Cinder was well on her way to a full recovery in due time.

But it was the damage done to her under the skin that had the two of them so quiet and overwhelmed.

Cinder was, to put it simply, paralyzed. To what precise degree was unknown, but if the doctor that had checked her over was accurate, then it would be a long time indeed until natural movement was possible. But one thing was definitely certain: fighting was no longer in the picture for her, which meant that whatever other plans she may have had would be forced to come an end here and now since she could no longer do anything to keep them going.

And it was this thought that had the thief and assassin reeling so much, Emerald perhaps more so than Mercury, though this was only the girl's silent opinion.

It was still just incredible to believe how things had all fallen apart. Ever since she had joined Cinder along with Mercury not long after, things had gone fairly well. They'd been able to slowly build up a power base that had been further supplemented by the power Cinder had drained from the Fall Maiden to coerce Adam Taurus' little sect of the White Fang into working with her. With Roman and his minx Neo having also been 'recruited' to aid them, Cinder's plans had been well on track to succeeding.

And then it had all started to fall apart with that one foiled Dust robbery. By one Jaune Arc.

Ever since then, one thing after another just seemed to come around to smack the three of them in their collective face. First, Roman had been thwarted and arrested, which had left Emerald in charge of some other Dust robberies which had yielded less Dust than the norm Roman had set. This had taken time away from the other assignments Cinder usually gave her and Mercury in turn had been forced to act alone. Then when it had looked like things were going to take an upturn with Roman back in the fold, it all had come crashing down again when he and Neo along with members of the White Fang had ended up dead, bringing the Dust robberies to a permanent end. And it had been this that had sparked Adam Taurus' ire enough to make him start the Mount Glenn part of the plan much earlier than expected, wasting literally tons of Dust that had been painstakingly gathered in the first place… not to mention that according to the news, a number of White Fang grunts had been found unconscious among all the rubble and debris in downtown Vale. That meant that whatever force Adam Taurus had gathered up to invade Vale during the Grimms' attack had likely failed, which in turn further deprived them of manpower.

And then there had been that silver light that had reduced Cinder to her current state…

Emerald could only shake her head, all of this information now overwhelming her. It made her shake, in all honesty.

Something that didn't go unnoticed by Mercury, it would seem.

"Don't go pissing yourself there," he remarked, his voice lacking the usual smugness that accompanied his words.

Emerald glared at him weakly, without any real energy. "I ought to say the same to you; you're not looking so preppy either, you know."

And she was right. The young man's face sported an almost permanently carved grimace comprised of worry and frustration. His hair, which was always in a pretty messy style, somehow managed to look even more wild than usual, the assassin clearly having not bothered with styling it into his usual look. There was slight bags under his eyes as well, having evidently not slept much all through last night, assuming he got any sleep at all.

Mercury grunted, but didn't respond to her retort. The young man instead settled for folding his arms across his chest and looking to Cinder with a certain level of worry that Emerald detected.

"…So just what to do now?" the young man asked.

Emerald shrugged helplessly. "Your guess is probably as good as mine there, Merc."

To say that their options were limited now would be an understatement. To put it simply, they didn't have much of a way out of this mess that they were all in. With Adam no longer on their side, there was no way they could request some form of extraction especially with how many men the bull Faunus had lost in the Breach just yesterday. The other 'helpers' they've had over the past several months were either dead – Roman and Neo being among this particular bunch now – or well out of contact for one reason or another. Attempting to just up and leave all by themselves would likewise prove impossible since there's no way they'd be able to get Cinder out of here without someone noticing, especially since with the Vytal Festival still on its way there were far too many eyes on all of the students to ensure that everyone was accounted for… a number that they'd intentionally become a part of for the sake of the plan, but now it was something that was keeping them trapped here since missing 'students' would definitely grab attention.

On the other hand, they could attempt to somehow continue the 'plan,' but that too had several problems. For one thing, it relied on finding the Fall Maiden for Cinder to take the rest of the power from, but they had also originally intended to butter up and befriend some of the teams here as part of their cover. There was no way they could do both of those now among the two of them. This also wasn't even mentioning hacking into the CCT. Admittedly, this was doable with Emerald's semblance, but even she could only use it for so long before she wears herself out mentally. And it doesn't work on cameras, of course, so she'd still have to sneak around as best as she could if she and Mercury still wished to go through with this.

Now that she thought of all this, Emerald found that it could be doable, but extremely difficult, if not even outright highly improbable. Continuing the plan would require her and Mercury pretty much forgoing sleep and eating for some time to accomplish everything. But there was one glaring problem that sadly they could never accommodate for:

The Vytal Festival.

The last phase of the plan was literally centered around manipulating it and it had originally required that annoying Neo to help accomplish certain parts of it. With her dead alongside Roman, who'd been meant to serve as one final distraction, they were literally missing two key elements here.

In other words, the last phase of the plan was essentially impossible to pull off as they lacked the manpower and abilities needed to do what was needed.

In other words, even if they managed to prepare things for the upcoming tournament, they'd be unable to actually see it through to the end.

And looking at Mercury, Emerald could see the young assassin coming to this conclusion at the same time she did.

"Well… we sure are stuck at rock bottom now," he muttered.

Emerald could only grimace and look down now… only to look back up a few seconds later, eyes a little wide. An idea had just struck her.

Without making a sound, the teal haired girl got up and started rummaging through Cinder's things, ruthlessly suppressing the embarrassment she felt at doing so.

From behind her, she could feel Mercury's eyes on her. "Em, just what are you doing?"

"Getting Cinder's scroll," she said. "Damn it, just where did I put it? I knew I shouldn't have just plopped all her stuff everywhere…" She muttered this solely to herself.

"What for? Contacts? I doubt anyone she knows could or would help us out," Mercury said, sounding annoyed.

"No, there's one person – someone that even Cinder herself seems to answer to," Emerald said.

Yes, it was a while back, well before they came to Vale. There'd been one time when Cinder had made a call to someone just around the same time Emerald had returned from a little 'errand.' When she'd heard Cinder talking to someone on her scroll, she'd unintentionally hid at the time and had overheard some of the conversation. While she had only managed to hear mainly Cinder's side of the conversation and even then only a few pieces of it, she'd been able to deduce that even the woman she looked up to answered to some sort of higher power, as odd and as terrifying as that thought had been at the time.

But now perhaps this would be some sort of salvation for them.

Finally finding the scroll, Emerald switched it on and wasted no time in going through the contact list. All of the contacts were aliases of course, meant to not garner any sort of suspicion should anyone somehow get a hold of the scroll. Under other circumstances, Emerald might have had trouble figuring out which alias belonged to whom.

But now that she sort of knew what to look for, the contact she was looking for stood out quite a lot now. Painfully so, really.

For one thing, all of the other contact aliases were names. But not this one.

' _Mind.'_ That was all it said for the contact and sure as hell wasn't a name, at least not like any Emerald had ever seen.

Looking for a split second to a blankly staring Mercury, Emerald took a deep breath and made the call.

* * *

In the dorm of one team RWBY, Weiss was doing her best to remain as calm and as ladylike as possible, the years she'd spent being groomed into a proper heiress kicking in to prevent what would've otherwise been her natural response:

Shrilly screaming, shrilly screaming like a child to be more precise.

But she was able to suppress this response and instead found herself immediately thinking over her day thus far and wondering just what the hell had led to… to _this_. Because seriously, all she had done so far was wake up a little early to check on her partner, who was now resting peacefully in her own bed while Blake and Yang did likewise. And then she'd silently entertained herself by trying to read a book she'd borrowed from the library as the rest of team slept and now here she was, having just gone quietly into the bathroom to take a shower that her day had suddenly been flipped around on its head.

Because after all, it sure wasn't normal when a freakin' _fog of darkness_ manifested from the shower head! Complete with glowing red 'eyes' staring directly at her!

 _Many thanks for remaining quiet. And my apologies for interrupting your shower._

At that, the otherwise frozen stiff Weiss remembered just where exactly she was and automatically moved her arms to cover up. But this thing, talking directly into her _mind_ , seemed completely uninterested in her current state, its apology aside.

 _No doubt you remember me by now – the 'creature' you saw just yesterday._

Weiss' eyes went wide at that. When this fog had appeared, she'd felt an odd sense of déjà vu, but now that it had identified itself, fear began to slowly worm its way into her heart. She suddenly moved a hand towards her waist unconsciously, as if her weapon was there to be grabbed when it wasn't.

 _I and my friend, whom you can no doubt guess by now, wish to speak with you. Alone, hence why I chose now of all times to approach you. While your team continues to rest, can you please meet with us after you finish in here?_

It took Weiss a good minute to comprehend what it had just said, shivering in spite of the warm water that kept on hitting her in the face. "How can I know you won't just attack me."

 _If that had been my intention, I'd have already done so. But you have my word that we really do just wish to speak with you briefly about something._

Weiss stared at the blackness for what felt like hours. In reality, it was only several seconds. Needless to say, she had no real desire to see this thing up close and personal, especially if there was a chance it would physically manifest like it had done yesterday. That went doubly so if (assistant) professor Jaune Arc, who clearly seemed associated with this creature, was going to be there.

Meeting just with one of them alone would be worrisome enough, but both though? That was just begging for some kind of trouble, a trouble that she doubted her skills would prove sufficient enough to deal with.

…But on the other hand, if this creature, so emotionless it would seem, truly did wish to just talk, then perhaps she could afford to ask it some questions that she'd definitely like to have answered. The fact that it had seemed fairly cordial even when professor Goodwitch had arrived on the scene yesterday seemed like a good indicator that, if nothing else, it wouldn't attack unless provoked.

"Very well, I'll meet with you," she finally said in as a firm a tone as she could manage, which was to say that she just barely managed to speak with only a slight tremble in her voice.

Nonetheless, her answer seemed good enough.

 _Thank you. Once you finish here and change, come to the cliffs behind the academy. Quickly and quietly, if you'd be so kind; waking your team or others would be quite rude from what I'm told._

Then without any other word spoken, the fog of darkness just seemed to somehow nod and then dissipate into thin air, leaving the heiress all to herself again.

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, her body trembling under the pouring water at having her privacy so suddenly violated, even if seemingly unintentionally, by that entity of all things.

But Weiss wasn't some weak minded person that needed to be comforted by something. So instead of wallowing in what had just happened, she steeled herself and hurried through her usually half hour long routine of freshening up and changing to the point where she was out the door of her dorm in under ten minutes, though not before sparing her friends a momentary glance of concern.

Quickly walking towards her destination, she silently debated on whether or not she should grab Myrtenaster, just in case something happened. But she opted to leave her blade in her locker, if only for her being weaponless to serve as some sort of sign of good faith.

It took just a bit of time to get to her destination, but once she did get close enough, she could make out Jaune Arc's form standing atop the cliff.

As she neared, the young professor turned slowly, his supposedly blind eyes now resting on her. "Ah, thanks for coming."

"But of course," Weiss said, eyeing the blond carefully. She noticed that he was wearing his 'coat.' "Well, if you don't mind, let's not mince words here."

The blond man nodded as if to say 'fair enough.' So he took a few steps forward in a casual manner before speaking. "You didn't tell anyone about seeing us, right? Not even your teammates?"

Weiss quirked an eyebrow. Was this all that the two of them wished to talk about? "No, I haven't said anything. Your secret remains a secret."

Jaune let out a sigh of relief. "That's good… can we trust you to keep it a secret for now?"

For now, he says… just what exactly could that mean, she wondered. Folding her arms across her chest, she gave her reply. "I really shouldn't… but I will. Though I highly doubt you can call it much of a secret when it seems professor Goodwitch knows. And what of your sister?"

Jaune chuckled a little sheepishly. "Good point…" he muttered. "Regarding my sister though, no she doesn't know… I'd like to keep it that way for a while longer."

So his sister doesn't know, huh? Interesting. Weiss was hoping she could continue to probe him for info like this for a little while longer, maybe the info could prove useful somehow.

But then his next words brought that to a halt. "But you know, if you have questions of your own, no need to start probing so slowly like that; it just wastes more time than necessary," he said, his dull blue eyes locking gazes with her own icy blue ones. It was enough to make her flinch, to be honest. His sheepish smile thinned a little. "Wouldn't be much of a talk if all it consisted of was me asking you to keep quiet."

"Ha…" Weiss couldn't help but smirk just a little, though for what reason, she didn't know. "Then in that case, can you please explain what exactly is going on with Ruby?"

Considering how drained whatever had happened had left the girl, the absolute last thing she wanted was it to happen a second time. Even if the young girl's complete exhaustion had now transformed into restful sleep, the mere fact that she had remained out for this long was worrying her a lot.

 _On that matter, I'm afraid we can't say much, not even to you._

It was Jaune's 'coat' that answered her question and Weiss' fingers twitched as she felt the entity's gaze on her despite the lack of eyes in its current shape.

 _Please understand that we do not wish for certain information to be spread. Even though you are reliable, there is always a chance no matter how small that certain things have a way of reaching the ears of many others._

Having grown up learning all about the world of corporations and business, Weiss was more than privy to such matters. She's seen personally and from afar how information can drastically change the markets. Likewise, information can easily change the tide of battle depending on how it's used. So very grudgingly, she had no choice but to accept the unknown entity's answer.

But that didn't mean she was done talking.

"Then would I be right in assuming that something else is on the horizon here? From how you've been saying things so far, it seems to me that there's something coming up that you don't want to leave up to chance," Weiss said with a huff. "In which case, just why exactly shouldn't I know about what's going on with my friend if it could prove to be an issue?"

"Because the kind of info that we know could prove to be world-changing, to be perfectly honest," Jaune now replied with a firm expression and voice. "I know that probably sounds like an over-exaggeration, but trust me, it's not. If what we knew ever got out somehow to the public, the ensuing chaos would only draw conflict in one form or another… and we all know that'd only attract the Grimm."

 _But the way things are going, it will only be a matter of time before some of what we know is revealed to the world. Until then, we'd like to try and keep things in check._

"But how does Ruby factor into this?" Weiss demanded, unable to fully restrain the annoyance that was quickly welling up within her.

"…She possesses a certain power that only a select group have," Jaune began after a moment. "If word got out about this power, certain groups would no doubt mobilize to try and take her or try searching out others like her."

 _Their numbers today are very small, however._

The entity's words seemed to be meant for Jaune more than her, Weiss reasoned, if the way the blond hummed was any indication.

"And that would be why, Ms. Schnee," Jaune then said, as if that explained everything.

It made Weiss grit her teeth in a way unbefitting of a heiress, but she didn't really care anymore. "So then what can you tell me? If there's something coming, then shouldn't we all know so that we can prepare for it."

Surely the two wouldn't cop out on that, right? After all, they definitely hadn't been denying that much so far during their brief talk.

And this was something that Jaune at least seemed to realized. "In the next few days, we're already going to be upping the training and sparring, so don't worry too much about that. As far as actual preparations go… well, I'm honestly not too sure what to say about that."

"And why is that?" Weiss shot back without hesitation. And a moment later, she found herself wishing she'd hadn't asked. Because the answer she got shook her to the core.

"Because there's no real way to properly prepare for what'll be a short war, right?"

* * *

Hanging up the scroll she'd long since procured through other means, Salem let out a dark chuckle.

To think that the insignificant minion of her own pawn would call her. Well, in hindsight it was to be expected, she supposed. It had certainly provided her with a decent amount of information regarding what had happened on their end prior to, during, and after the Breach.

Still, to learn through the young girl that Cinder had been so badly injured… as she'd expected, the power of that girl's silver eyes had been quite potent, especially since her pawn had been unable to mount any sort of defense against it.

Oh well, not that it mattered too much. From the very start, Cinder had been meant only to rile up the world, to increase the negativity so that the Grimm – her true family – would soften up the kingdoms a bit before the 'trial' commenced.

While Cinder's plans have fallen apart and had only really impacted just the city of Vale, it would be enough, especially since the news would no doubt be discussing it for all across the kingdoms to see if they tune in. That alone would suffice until the 'trial.'

That said, she wasn't about to remain idle the rest of the time. In order to soften up the kingdoms even more for a landslide victory in the end, she'd need some extra help.

And the Grimm alone wouldn't suffice for that, she must sadly admit.

But the call she'd received just now had been most helpful just now and in more ways than one. Before she'd ended the call, she'd requested the young girl – Emerald, she said her name was – to message her a certain person's contact info, which only Cinder had access to up until this point.

So playfully fiddling with her scroll for a moment, she finally called the number Emerald had just sent her.

There was a good chance her call would go unanswered, but Salem just had the feeling that her call wouldn't go to waste.

And she was proven right just a few seconds later, a gruff 'what?' that was just barely discernable through the still burning rage of the answerer being what Salem heard.

With a sneer, Salem calmly replied to who would no doubt make for a decent new pawn.

"Adam Taurus," she began. "You don't know me, but I can help you get revenge for what happened yesterday. Interested?"

* * *

 **Yet another pretty serious chapter, not as much as the previous ones, but as you can already tell, things aren't going to be calming down anytime soon.**

 **Ha ha, but don't worry there'll be some more light-hearted moments soon enough to make up for it all.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	30. Chapter 30

This may be it – a new job for me! Been applying around and got two responses, which is two more than what has become the usual for me, ha ha ha. All I can do now is go to the orientations/exams, pass, and hope I can continue to make it through the processes. Wish me luck!

Don't really have much else to say, so let's just jump into the chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 30

Jaune inwardly gulped.

Having dropped a cryptic bombshell on Weiss and having then sent her back to her dorm, the blond man had been hoping to head back as well a moment later, but alas that wasn't going to be the case.

For someone else was approaching him, no doubt to talk, and he couldn't see himself getting out of this easily.

So instead, he gave as much of a relaxed smile as he could as the person approached him.

"Glad to see you're already doing well," he said.

"Still feeling a little sore, actually," the Fall Maiden, Amber, replied. "It'll be a while longer before I can truly say I'm all healed up. Had yourself a little rendezvous with a student, I see."

Jaune chuckled weakly. "Ah, you saw that?"

"Mhm. Anything I should know about?" Amber asked with a bit more force than what would've been normal.

"Er, first off, she didn't see you walking over here or anything, right?"

"I made sure to hide off in a corner and then walk over here afterwards. Now stop trying to stall – what was that all about?" Amber said in a bit of a huff.

"…That girl was one of the ones that saw you and Tenebrous up close," Jaune began. "I simply wanted to ask of her to keep that to herself and give just a bit of a heads up of things to come."

"You actually told her what was coming?" Amber asked.

"Not quite – just hinted at it; don't want to risk her telling her team anything truly important," the blond replied. He sighed a little. "It was a bit of a risk, yeah, but I just had to make sure about that."

He looked away off into the distance over the cliffs. As there was no aura anywhere near here in that particular direction, all he ended up seeing was complete darkness.

From behind him, he heard Amber grunt and then walk up beside him so that she too stared in the same direction. "I have quite a bit to ask you about. I'd like it if you answer me as best as possible."

"…Or else you're just going to follow me around or something?" Jaune muttered. Judging by the woman's tone of voice, that's what she sort of seemed to be implying.

"Yep," came the one word response.

"Hmm, figured." Jaune paused, bracing himself for whatever would come next. He figured that sooner or later, the Fall Maiden would be coming to him and Tenebrous about her particular set of questions, he just hadn't quite been expecting it to occur literally the next day. Or for her to approach him out in the open like this. Wasn't she supposed to just rest up and remain hidden from the student body?

"First off, just what was up with that girl? The one who eradicated all of those Grimm yesterday?" Amber then asked.

Jaune quirked an eyebrow. He sort of saw that question coming, but he hadn't been expecting it to be the first question right off the bat. "…She's an inheritor of the silver eyes. It's what allowed her to do what she did yesterday, though it hadn't been intentional on her part."

"Silver eyes? What exactly is so special about them? What can they do?" Amber then followed up with. He could hear the confusion and intrigue in her voice.

 _The silver eyes were something formed a few millennia ago. The formation of them in and of itself was intentional, but how it manifested and how it continues to be passed on was unintentional._

Oh hey, there's Tenebrous with perfect timing.

He felt Amber now turn and look at him, or rather his 'coat,' no doubt feeling even more confused. "What do you mean?"

 _The belief that the eyes are the window to the soul is something that has been around for a very long time, dating even back to when I had first formed. It wasn't until aura had been discovered and experimented with a little that the humans of back then decided to try and weaponize this belief._

 _They tried to see if it was possible to outright manipulate their own aura and make it flow out of their very bodies. Through much trial and error and training, some were able to do so – through their eyes. Their aura would literally manifest itself as an intensely concentrated wave meant to do one thing and one thing only: harm the Grimm, who were the only true enemy that humanity perceived back then. This desire to only harm the Grimm was so absolute, that against other humans, it just didn't have any effect._

 _However, as helpful as it was to humans in severely hurting and even outright killing Grimm provided they had enough aura for it, it still always takes a lot of aura out of them, even the ones who'd become proficient at it. As such, it's something to be used sparingly if it can be helped._

Jaune now looked to Amber, watching her form, lit up as always by her own aura, shift in place. She seemed to be taking a moment to comprehend all of this, if the way she folded her arms across her chest was anything to go by.

"Interesting… but how exactly does the color silver factor into all of this?" she then asked.

And now Jaune felt it was his turn to answer that. "Well, from what Tenebrous told me about it, it seems like the constant strain of learning this 'technique' severely damaged the pigments in the irises, to the point that when they healed, they'd be silver rather than whatever other color they were before. Apparently, the damage and subsequent healing extended right down to the genes or something – probably because of the intensity of the aura – and that's why the eyes became an actual trait that could be passed on."

Amber turned and stared at him in what looked like disbelief. "That's… not how science works, I believe."

"We live in a world where our own souls protect and strengthen us. Where my friend and the Grimm exist. You're really questioning only that?" Jaune couldn't help but say, being in disbelief over, well, Amber's own disbelief.

He watched as Amber turned away, her aura rippling about in a way that signified embarrassment. "Fair enough," she said quietly. She then turned back to face him. "So… then, if that's the case, how is it that the descendants can do the same thing those people could so easily in comparison? And now to move onto a different point… just why did you shield me yesterday?"

 _Ever since the silver eyes were truly formed, aura had always resided strongly in those eyes as opposed to those without the eyes. It's another sort of trait that those who inherit the eyes have. Odd, from most people's perspectives I suppose… but considering how aura levels and other traits are passed down through other families, it's hardly anything truly new in that respect._

 _As for why I protected you from the silver eyes yesterday, it was for the same reason that the woman who stole some of your power is in her current state – you are, technically speaking, part 'Grimm.'_

Jaune winced a little; having been looking at Amber still, he hadn't quite been expecting her aura to suddenly go crazy, lighting up and moving about immensely from the surprise that was now overwhelming her.

"W-What…?" Amber began, only to stop. Jaune noticed how wide her eyes were getting now. "What the hell do you mean by that?!"

 _I'm surprised you haven't come to that conclusion yet; the conversation we all had yesterday should've alluded to that. No matter._

 _In practice, you're still very much human, but you and by extension the other maidens, carry the essence of the Grimm. This is because you all received your power from the one you know as the 'old man.'_

 _But that old man was more than you four originally thought. From what I understand, you seem to mistake him for being some sort of wizard… or just a very powerful human. That is not the case._

 _Approximately three centuries ago, my other half had the idea of creating what one would call an Apostle – a being that would serve as a bridge between us and humanity, meant to help us better learn how to help humanity… while in regards to humanity, the Apostle would serve as a sort of paragon for them, someone to aspire to be like in order to combat the Grimm and by extension their inner darkness._

 _To this end, my other half and I pooled together a meager fraction of our power at the time into creating not a Grimm, but rather a human being._

 _After doing so, we had him quietly taken to a village at dawn, and waited until the home we dropped him off at opened the door to see him there. That family took him in and raised him – named him Alexander, from what I can recall._

 _From then on, the two of us simply watched as he grew and then when he was in his early-twenties, my other half finally approached him and explained to him everything, including what he really was._

… _He didn't take to it very well and rejected us. Forcing him to help would not have served us any purpose, so we simply let him go._

 _Alas, the revelations utterly destroyed all of the beliefs and views he'd been raised with and it left him bitter… until he met you four, that is. Even then, he still despised my other half and I for our actions._

Amber nearly fell onto her butt. Seeing this, Jaune quickly approached her and helped lower her gently to the ground, feeling the Fall Maiden's strength all but leave her from the shock she was feeling. "B-B-But that… that's just…!" She kept on stuttering after that, her words coming out too jumbled to make sense.

It took several minutes for her to finally calm down. All Jaune could do during this time was sit beside her awkwardly, unsure of what to say, if he should even say anything at all.

"…But that was three centuries ago, you said…" he finally heard from beside him, Amber no longer stuttering, it would seem.

 _He was made from both myself and my other half, a minute portion of our power. As such, he was blessed with an exceptionally long lifespan in addition to a great deal of power, including that which was passed onto you maidens._

 _Back to what you're originally asked though, because he was made from us, the very same beings that took humanity's darkness and molded it into the Grimm, he technically counted as something not human and would therefore be affected by the silver eyes. It wouldn't have damaged him much… but against you and the other maidens, who've inherited portions of his own dwindling power by the time you met him, it's more effective._

 _On that particular note, when he'd given you four his power, it had also evidently contained portions of his very emotions… which is why you had reacted the way you did to me initially._

Silence reined after that, Tenebrous clearly content to simply wait this out. Not so much the case for Jaune, who could only continue to sit there nervously as Amber took all that in.

He knew he should've just made a run for it – this was clearly too much for the Fall Maiden to take in just after all she and the others had been told yesterday. Yet he didn't dare move. For he got the sneaking feeling that doing so would only jolt her out of her stupor a little too suddenly for her own good.

Still… it felt awkward just sitting here quietly like this. He wanted to say something to try and help her, but nothing was coming to mind. So all he could do was just shuffle his feet a bit to distract himself for the moment.

"So then…" Amber eventually said. "Are you just like him then? Some artificially made Apostle?"

Jaune hummed a little, somewhat thankful for the silence now ending, but also feeling just a little uncomfortable by how Amber now looked at him. Her emotions were unreadable right now, her aura acting up too much for him to get a read on it. But the way her eyes bore into him, the irises lit up by her aura, was worrying him a bit.

"Yes and no. I – and Salem as well – are indeed Apostles. I am the Apostle of Tenebrous, the 'Power.' And Salem is the Apostle of the 'Mind.' Alexander had been the Apostle of both. That said… Salem and I are a little different from him."

"In what ways?"

Jaune mulled over that question nervously. After everything he'd learned since meeting Tenebrous, he'd come to quickly just accept and roll with everything in terms of how it impacts him directly. But now that Amber here was asking him what was a pretty personal question in a manner of speaking, he was starting to feel just a little uncomfortable.

Not necessarily over the truth of the matter, but over simply telling someone else… he had no idea just how Amber would react to what he'd have to say.

"Well, as you had just put it, Alexander had been an artificially made one, so to speak… Salem and I are 'naturally born' ones. If that makes sense," he said, scratching the side of his head as he said this.

It felt odd to say it aloud and even worrisome since it seemed like the intensity of Amber's gaze had somehow increased to the point of being a near physical force.

"…So all that time ago spent making him, the bitterness he'd been consumed by… it'd all been for nothing in the end? Made for a purpose he denied only for a few centuries later, two 'natural born' Apostles to just come along like that…" Amber muttered.

Jaune felt his very body tense up without any real desire on his part. It'd just been an automatic reflex of sorts, the Fall Maiden's tone seeming to indicate potential danger.

But rather than let his body respond preemptively to the _possibility_ of a threat, he chose to try and talk things out just a bit more.

"W-Well, it certainly does seem that way when you put it like that… but please believe me here – there's more to it than just that," he began. He waited a moment to see how Amber reacted and didn't dare speak again until her aura began to visibly calm down a little. Said 'calming down' was all but microscopic in scope, but he'll take what he can get. "Thing is, while the two of us were born to be Apostles, that's literally it – Salem and I wouldn't have existed otherwise, if the very need for us hadn't ever been necessary."

The familiar aura shifting that signified confusion appeared and when Amber then spoke, Jaune noted it was in a somewhat calmer voice. "What in the world are you saying?"

"E-Errr…." Damn, just how could he explain it properly? Felt like he was just going to somehow make it sound even more confusing if he tried.

Thankfully, Tenebrous suddenly interrupted to save him the trouble.

 _Recall from yesterday how I and the 'Mind' came to be – humanity's belief in a god sparked the Will taking parts of itself and forming them into us. Were it not for this belief in God on humanity's part, we likely never would've existed, at least not in this capacity._

 _In this respect, Salem and Jaune are exactly the same as us. They too are beings that would not have ever come to be normally. But my other half and I… although emotions as you know them are still quite foreign to us, we had once upon a time experienced what could be called 'hope.' 'Hope' in that we could have Apostles to aid us in this situation we've made._

 _And that is how they came to be. The Will, still very much present, had responded to our 'hope' and in direct response to it, Salem was born first as the Apostle to the 'Mind' and later Jaune was born as my Apostle after I had become more self-aware following the untimely passing on of my other half._

 _Put simply, Salem and Jaune are anomalies of the exact same level as the 'Mind' and myself, their innate abilities molded in such a way as to somewhat mirror our own, though born from human flesh just like you and every other person alive. Hence why Jaune had just described himself and Salem as 'natural born Apostles.' After all, the two of them hadn't simply spawned into existence like we'd done with Alexander._

As abruptly as he'd started, Tenebrous ceased speaking and Jaune mentally gave the 'Power' a high five for explaining it so well. God, how hard it was to sometimes explain the truth himself – he'd tried saying it all aloud to himself back then to see if it made sense, but had always gotten figuratively tongue tied in some respect.

But his slight joy at having his friend so cleanly explain his circumstances was promptly snuffed out as he remained focused on Amber still, the maiden continuing her staring, but no longer with any hint of the slowly bubbling outrage that had been present just a moment ago or so.

If anything, the way she seemed to be looking at him now, it almost seemed as if…

"…Are you pitying me or something?" he asked without issue.

Amber seemed to wince and then sigh. "…I guess. If that's really true, then all you're doing is just fulfilling a role that you were literally born for… in a way, you're what Alexander could've been now."

Well, she had a point there. He definitely couldn't deny that. In fact, all he could do was hum in agreement.

"And that's it?" she then asked, now sounding just a little bit incredulous. "I just make that kind of comment and all you can do in response is just a little hum?"

"Well, I don't know if it's just something about me personally or if it has to do with me being born an Apostle, but I never really felt too torn up over all of this," Jaune said.

And he meant every single word.

He'd certainly been shocked when he'd first met Tenebrous and had learned all of this, but anger? Sadness? Existential crisis? These should've been the natural responses to all that he'd learned, but none of it had ever really occurred to him. Sure, it'd been more than mind-blowing to him, but having always wanted to be a hero that could help people, this was perhaps the chance to do just that – on a much larger scale than he'd ever originally thought of.

Was it wrong in some way to just think of this entire situation like that? Perhaps. Hell, maybe even definitely… but growing up, he'd also learned that being a hero wasn't always hunky-dory. Decisions had to be made that could affect a lot of people, positively or negatively.

In other words, his own earnest desire to help others was tempered by an innately realistic nature.

As a result, he knew that he and Tenebrous were – and he loathed this phrase here, but it had to be used – playing a dangerous game. By having remained a lone wolf of sorts for these past few years, he and Tenebrous had only been capable of doing so much on their own and he didn't doubt for one second that had the two of them somehow made allies sooner, a number of things could've turned out differently.

But alas… all that could be done now was to look to the future and prepare as best as they could.

He wanted to say all of this to Amber, he truly did… but he wasn't sure if he could ever somehow express the entirety of his feelings in mere words alone. So he made an expression that he hoped would be a decent enough substitute to back up what he'd just said.

He and Amber locked gazes for the moment, Jaune feeling the woman sizing him up in a way and eventually the woman seemed to grunt in what could've been acceptance.

"I see… You're an interesting one. I'll give you that much," she said quietly as she finally found the strength to stand properly. "I can't say I agree with how you've apparently reacted to all of this, but better than having your own mental breakdown or whatever… especially since you and your… friend… have provided me and the others with some enlightening info."

"Thanks. I think…" Jaune muttered in reply, unsure if that had been a genuine compliment or not. He now stood too. "For what it's worth though, I'm sorry at how things turned out for Alexander. And how things had played out until now. Personally, I'd wanted to go to you and Ozpin and the others about all this for a long time now, but well… Tenebrous here had a way of convincing me not to at those times."

Amber huffed, but there seemed to be a bit of amusement in the action. "I'll bet. But thank you for the apology. You honestly didn't have to, considering how long ago it took place and all." A pause. "That aside for now… what about that girl then? Ruby, right?"

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked.

"You two plan to tell her about her silver eyes?"

Jaune hummed a bit as he thought on that. Mentally, he tried to sense his friend's intentions in regards to that particular question. If he was being honest with himself though, he'd like to tell Ruby about her powers, but not when she was with her teammates. While she'd no doubt tell the others anyway – probably – he'd just prefer to have a one-on-one conversation about it so that the two of them could just focus on one another and not have others interrupt.

"Well, I for sure would like to sit her down and explain it all… would be beneficial to have her know about what she could now potentially do. It'd definitely help out when the Trial starts," he answered.

 _Indeed._

As was usual, Tenebrous spoke suddenly and it was enough to make him and Amber jump a little.

 _Up until now, we'd remained silent on this issue because the girl had never shown any signs of awakening her silver eyes' power any time soon. Even with the Trial looming close now, forcibly awakening her innate power had never really been our goal since the initial strain it puts on her would've rendered her all but completely defenseless immediately afterwards. And even if we had gone and done so, we would've likely had to contend with Ozpin and others noticing it and immediately launching an offensive against us before we could explain ourselves._

 _But with our unplanned physical encounter with her triggering the awakening, things have changed and for the better. A blessing in disguise – now with the initial awakening out of the way, we could try and see if it's possible to train her to draw upon the power at will._

 _However, doing so still poses some risk. Given her age and inexperience, using her power will still drain her significantly even with whatever training could be provided to her now. And against the army Salem will have at her disposal during the Trial, we will need everyone to be capable of lasting as long as possible in battle._

"High risk, high reward then," Amber stated. She then grunted as she likely saw the problem here.

"Regardless, better to at least inform her so that she can prepare herself," Jaune quickly said now. "Things have changed a lot for all of us in just a day so now the two of us can no longer afford to simply keep all of our secrets to ourselves."

"Duly noted. Hope you don't mind if I hold you to that," Amber replied.

"I swear on the name of my family that if anything else can prove useful, I and Tenebrous will tell you and the others as soon as we can." Jaune placed a hand across his heart and narrowed his eyes into a firm gaze. "And an Arc doesn't go back on his word. Ever."

"…Ha." Amber seemed to draw some amusement from that. "A real gentleman there, I see."

Now it was Jaune's turn to be a little amused. He chuckled sheepishly. "Well, I try every now and then. Still have a long way to go there, I think."

"Well, now's your chance for some practice – escort me back to my room, please," Amber suddenly said as she then slowly pivoted and stuck her arm out. "Hearing all of that had really tuckered me out somehow. Combined with my still healing damage, I don't know if I can walk back in a reasonable manner."

Jaune couldn't help but blush. Despite his unique circumstances, he was still a young man that wasn't even twenty yet. A young man that had never really had much experience with the opposite sex. So hearing the Fall Maiden so suddenly request this of him in a teasing manner took him off guard.

But he recovered quickly enough.

"Very well, milady," he said, getting a quick and quiet laugh from the woman. "It would be my pleasure."

Swiftly linking his arm with hers, he then began to gently walk the Fall Maiden back to Beacon, the serious conversation they've just had slowly morphing into a much more light-hearted one along the way.

The sense of relaxation and peace that accompanied the walk back was one Jaune wished would last a long time for everyone following the Trial.

And he would damn well do what he can to make sure this happens.

* * *

In his office, Ozpin stood and stretched, feeling a kink in his back being relieved in the process. It made him sigh in gratitude; it'd been pestering him for a few hours now.

Thus far, he'd spent his early hours today seated at his desk, making call after call to trustworthy allies and trying to get them to understand the most perilous threat that was approaching all of Remnant. It certainly hadn't been an easy task to do given that of everything he'd been told by Jaune and Tenebrous, only so much of it could be reliably told to his other allies without them using it to unintentionally incite panic.

Contrary to how Glynda and James had reacted overall to the revelations learned last night, he understood quite well why their two new allies had kept so tightly-lipped about all of this.

To say that the information they'd given them was world-changing would be an understatement.

While he had constant faith in humanity's goodness and ability to change for the better, Ozpin's optimism was tempered by a realism that had been all but beaten into him throughout his long life. Collectively, humanity had always reacted badly to things that contrasted sharply with their current beliefs or would otherwise provoke some kind of massive change. Should the information Jaune and Tenebrous had shared last night somehow get out to the public, there'd be riots and perhaps even outright 'purges' in no time flat. And with this Trial on the way with Salem at the helm, such internal conflict was the absolute last thing needed.

Still, regarding the others he's contacted thus far, he had to give them some reason to believe him and it'd been a chore and a half to convince them to start preparing for what would amount to a war for survival.

A war that not even he was fully sure could be won despite having the likes of that god-like entity, Tenebrous, on their side.

But should humanity go down, then if nothing else, Ozpin could say the human race would go down fighting, especially his fellow huntsmen and huntresses.

Not to mention all of the students…

Ah, at that particular thought, he smiled bittersweetly. Sending such young men and women into a veritable war twisted his stomach painfully, but having seen how many of them faired during the Breach even with such unexpectedly high odds against them, he couldn't feel prouder of all the students – from Beacon and from the other academies – for how they valiantly fought on in defense of the people.

Should this Trial be successfully ended, he could easily imagine many of the students going on to do great things in their lives.

But if this was to pass, then it would be up to him and his comrades to in turn stack the odds in their favor.

And his calls earlier had been attempts to do just that. Including one call to a longtime friend of his, a certain alcohol loving scythe wielder.

And on that note, Ozpin couldn't help but wonder what exactly Qrow felt about all of this. The man had perhaps been the only one that he'd fully explained the new circumstances to and there was only so much suddenly spitting out and on choking on alcohol could do to give away Qrow's thoughts.

For despite how lackadaisical Qrow acted, he was a huntsman through and through, one that was sometimes prone to unorthodox ways of thinking and developing insights into matters. Such insights could sure prove beneficial right about now.

But alas, the questions he'd have liked to ask the member of former team STRQ would have to wait until much later. For he had tasked the scythe wielder with something new to do.

Originally, the man had been given the job of trying to locate all of the maidens before then being sent to scout out the badlands where it seemed most of the Grimm had been content to remain at.

This new task was essentially just an extension of the previous one, though one that would be far more dangerous and push the man's skills to the limit.

Basically, what Ozpin had asked of Qrow was to travel even further into the badlands and see if it was possible to actually locate Salem herself.

Up until now, the aforementioned 'Queen' and her location had always been generalized, never really further looked into as they'd all been more focused on stopping whatever her plans were in general. But now with this Trial coming up quickly, they could no longer afford to put this off.

Should Qrow discover where precisely Salem was at and provided she didn't suddenly travel a significant distance afterwards, he could return to bring reinforcements and launch a preemptive strike, one with Jaune's and Tenebrous' approval, of course. The two of them were now the leading experts on these types of matters and therefore would be the ones best suited to detailing what would and wouldn't work in such a scenario.

Who knows? If Qrow succeeds and a suitable strike team can be put together to take her down, perhaps the Trial can be stopped before it even starts.

Ozpin wasn't going to hold his breath on this, but it certainly was something he could nonetheless hope for.

That being said, as he sat back down, he shot a look to someone else in his office, who'd remained markedly quiet to the point of almost not existing.

"Feeling overwhelmed, I presume? A first in a long time, if I remember right," Ozpin said neutrally.

That got a reaction out of his friend, in the form of a grunt that sounded just a tiny bit like a growl.

"Can you really blame me, old friend?" James said, standing close to the wall and the glass, having been looking aimlessly upon the campus from here.

"I certainly can't," Ozpin said easily. "I just find it amazing that you have the time to just stand there. I'd have imagined you being even busier than I currently am preparing your army."

"That's what I've been doing up until an hour ago," James muttered.

Ozpin quirked an eyebrow. Looks like his friend had opted to go and do what he felt needed to be done during the night, no doubt immediately after having left the 'meeting' they all had last night.

Well, it certainly would explain the lack of Atlas military presence here on Beacon. That and the army James had brought was likely still residing back in Vale, tending still to the clean-up.

"I see. In that case, wouldn't it be better for you to go and rest up? We still have a few more weeks ahead of us. Wearing ourselves down now would do no good," Ozpin finally said.

James apparently found his words funny because he then began to laugh. Harshly. He turned to Ozpin, revealing slight bags under his eyes due to his hectic and sleepless night, a grimace appearing as well. "After everything we were told last night, do you really think sleep would come easy?"

"No… I imagine not." Ozpin inwardly sighed. It would seem that James was most affected by what they'd learned. Given how paranoid the man could often time be, this really should've been expected.

Feeling concerned for his friend, Ozpin turned in his chair so that he now faced the Atlas general. "Anything specifically that is bothering you so much?"

"God, I wish I could answer that…" the large man grumbled. "To be perfectly frank, my mind is feeling… frazzled. And that's putting it mildly, Oz. A lifetime of what I had considered common sense had just been completely flipped onto its head. How could I not be so shocked by it all? Never mind the fact that those two are still hiding plenty more from us."

"I can sympathize with that," Ozpin began slowly. "But given how mind-boggling what we'd learned was, can you really say you want to learn whatever else they know?"

"Hell no – I'd likely drop dead from the shock," James retorted, his words followed briefly by a snort of disbelief. The general must have just tried to imagine what else Jaune and Tenebrous could have in store for them all… and the mere thought alone must be sending shivers down his spine.

Ozpin couldn't blame him for that.

"The things they know… if it got out, the chaos it would cause would be catastrophic," James murmured. Then he pointedly looked to Ozpin with a tight expression. "Almost as catastrophic as the new mission you'd sent Qrow on."

Ozpin sighed. He somehow knew the general had been about to comment on that in some manner. "You don't agree with it." He stated this so flatly that even he was left a little surprised at his tone.

"Not quite, which is saying something considering how I'm normally like." Well, it was good to know that James was so self-aware. "Under slightly different circumstances, I'd have ordered something similar, but…"

"But…?" Then it hit Ozpin. "Ah, could it be what Tenebrous said about Salem being the only one restraining the Grimm?"

James grunted. "Yes, exactly that. If what it said is completely true, then your hope of taking her down this soon would just result in all of the Grimm going on a rampage. Without any real intelligence to guide them, yes, but the instincts they're all ingrained with combined with sheer numbers would more than make up for that."

"I'm aware of that, James. Believe me, I am," Ozpin began. He now turned in his chair a bit more to properly face the man, who in turn had moved to fully confront him. If anyone else were in his position, they'd likely be cowed by the intense gaze James sported. But Ozpin merely took it in stride, barely even fazed. "However, it's rather obvious that Jaune and Tenebrous have something in mind to solve that."

"…So, what then? Are you just going to follow through on this with the hope that whatever they _might_ have planned will work in time?" James looked affronted by that thought. "Are you mad, Oz?! I understand the necessity of risks, but this is on a far grander scale than we've ever expected! You could potentially put all humanity at risk!"

"Then tell me, James – what else would you have us do? Prepare every single army and huntsmen, from the most seasoned of veterans to the most recently joined newbies, for what could be a two day war with the Grimm? Grimm that would be coming at us all from every direction imaginable and driven by an actual human intellect?" Ozpin now returned James' gaze with his own, the headmaster of Beacon feeling his eyes narrow into a glare. "While I more than understand the necessity for preparing, going about this in so direct a manner is no doubt an equally massive risk in and of itself."

As soon as those words were uttered, Ozpin knew that he had James, evident in how the man's left eye twitched and how his teeth gritted. Clearly, the general had wanted to retort, but couldn't. Not immediately, that is.

Ozpin sighed inwardly once more. He knew that James, much like him and Glynda and others, merely wanted what was best for humanity at large. However, the way the man was proposing dealing with this carried risks of his own. Granted, Ozpin was well aware that his own little plan was equally, if not even more, risky, but if it succeeded, then perhaps humanity would not have to directly face this Trial after all.

In spite of Tenebrous' own desire for humanity to face its collective darkness, doing things this way would at least give humanity the time needed to better prepare for the Trial much later on in life, one that would hopefully be far less threatening.

At least, that was his hope in this ever growing messy situation.

James actually snarled now, but then stopped abruptly. Taking a deep breath, the Atlas general was now obviously trying to calm himself. Ozpin took this reprieve to do the same as well. Evidently, it was the nerves finally getting to them both.

It took a few long minutes, but when both men looked at one another again, it was with calmer expressions. However, if one looked closely, the flames of indignation still burned ever so slightly within their eyes.

"Fine then… we both have our own ways of preparing. That said, we should coordinate our efforts as we used to do, wouldn't you say?" James said neutrally.

"Of course," Ozpin agreed without hesitation. Thanks to him being situated here in Beacon and his friend being a resident and general from Atlas, they naturally didn't see much of one another anymore compared to back then. In hindsight now, it was obvious that communication between them would've been sparse up until now. So now it fell to this moment to try and connect with one another once more.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I will be trusting Qrow to know what the hell he's doing on this new mission of his," James uttered with a grimace, it being aimed at the drunkard who wasn't here.

It was enough to make Ozpin honestly chuckle a bit. Among their little cabal and those that simply knew them personally, it was a well-known fact that James and Qrow could just barely stand one another outside of serious matters. James viewed Qrow as an aggravating alcoholic that liked to tease others far too much sometimes. Qrow in turn saw James as a hotheaded man that was far too uptight and disciplined for his own good, though the huntsman liked to use far more… coarse and liberal language to convey this meaning.

But regardless, Qrow was one of the best huntsmen alive. James' words just now were merely his grudging way of admitting to the man's power and skill.

"I assure you that Qrow is aware of these new circumstances. He will know when it is appropriate to make a move," Ozpin spoke anyways in the man's defense.

"I hope so, Oz…. because if our plans and preparations turn out to not be enough… then God help us all," James said grimly.

Ozpin could only nod in agreement. The stakes were so much higher than he'd ever expected them to be.

And to think… it all likely had to do with the past between him and Salem…

Alas. The past was the past. Dwelling on it wouldn't change the present situation one bit.

"…Well, that shouldn't be a problem then," Ozpin then said. Ridding himself of his current dark thoughts, he smiled slightly from good humor. "After all, we do have 'God' quite literally on our side now."

"You know what I meant, Oz!" James retorted with a bit of annoyance. But there too was a slight twinkle of bemusement in his eyes.

The two of them then shared a brief laugh together. It certainly helped to further alleviate the tension.

Ozpin could only hope that many more minor moments like this would follow in the time to come.

* * *

Adam grunted unceremoniously as he awoke.

Having spent the past several hours napping to fully recover from the events of yesterday, he reflexively surveyed his surroundings as he physically got up from the uncomfortable bed he'd been lying upon.

During the time in between the end of the Breach and now, he'd managed to travel further away from Vale and had been picked up by a small detachment of the White Fang, one that was quite loyal to him. However, they greatly respected and feared the leader of the entire organization, Sienna Khan, much more than they did him. As such, the most they were able to do for him was take him to one of their old safe houses that lied well away from any part of Vale.

Indeed, the safe house was quite far indeed, being just a few miles south of a modestly sized village, where the residents there rarely ventured out too far on their own due to the Grimm that sometimes prowled around this area.

But the group hadn't dropped him off here late last night for no real reason – he'd been the one to tell them to do so, based on the call he'd received prior to that.

"Salem, huh?" he muttered. That was the name of the woman who had so suddenly called him. Her words had been cryptic, infuriatingly so, but the offer of manpower and additional resources had been too much to just pass up.

Especially since the rest of the White Fang would not be likely to back him up anymore. The failure of the mission yesterday aside, for quite some time now, Adam had used his high-ranking position among the White Fang to covertly gather resources to use for his own agenda against humanity, an agenda that had been forced to grudgingly align with that of Cinder initially.

With that damned human woman now apparently out of the picture yet with his offenses exposed, he wasn't going to be welcomed back to the rest of the White Fang with high honors anytime soon. This meant that while he was still a member of it, he wasn't going to be able to garner much support for help anymore.

Hence why he'd somewhat reluctantly accepted Salem's offer.

But just why exactly had she requested for him to come so far out here? The nearby village aside, there was hardly anything else out here except for more forestry, far too much for this mysterious woman to have set up a base at. It was a miracle in and of itself that this hidden safe house had even been made here, its small size a testament to this fact as the time needed to have made a more spacious and accommodating safe house would've taken an inconvenient amount of time to build.

Sighing, Adam could only rid himself of these thoughts. Dwelling on them wasn't going to do him much good for the time being, thus all he could really do was to just wait until the time she'd recommended, which was just about ten minutes away.

He'd also been told that an escort would take him to her, but had been given no further info than that other than that said escort is aware of where to pick him up, which really only raised further questions, but they too could wait until a more appropriate time.

Any minute now, the escort should be arriving. He might as well head outside and wait it out since there was no chance of him being spotted by the villagers.

So finally, the bull type Faunus began to head for the door – only to then pause.

It'd been brief, but he'd heard footsteps outside just now. Fairly light at first, but now a second later, they were picking up in volume.

And heaviness – the floor shook ever so lightly as the steps neared the safe house.

The hairs on the back of his neck were fully raised of their own volition, a sign of his instincts at work.

Whatever was now on the other side of the door wasn't someone friendly.

Adam's hand drifted to his blade's hilt and tightened around it instantly, ready to strike at the first sign of an attack.

Then a heavy thud shook the entire door. Followed by a brief lapse of silence then by another heavy thud.

Adam blinked behind his mask.

The heavy thud repeated itself a few more times with brief lapses in between each one. Whoever or whatever was on the other side of the door was _knocking_.

With a distrustful frown, Adam reluctantly approached the door and swung it wide open before the knocking could continue.

The sight before him left him speechless.

For what had apparently been knocking on the other side of the door had been none other than a Beringel. And a large one at that too.

The heavily muscled ape-like Grimm all but towered over him even with the Grimm having lowered itself somewhat to knock. It stared at the stunned Adam with an unusual intensity.

Adam could only stare back at it, unsure of what to do. Instincts told him to just attack the damned thing, but the almost pacifist nature it was currently exhibiting made him stay his hand.

Then his scroll suddenly pinged, breaking the silence. He nearly lashed out at the sudden sound, but only got his sword drawn halfway before his mind recognized the sound.

Sheathing his blade fully, he slowly pulled out his scroll from his pocket. He had a new message, a short one at that.

' _He will bring you to me.'_

That was all it said and Adam's expression scrunched up as if he'd just heard a really bad joke. But putting the scroll away and focusing back on the Beringel, he now saw that it had turned around and had lowered itself, its back open to Adam.

The Grimm evidently was to carry him.

Adam could only continue to stare, saying nothing, but with his mind looking over everything. It was absurd, this entire situation. It simply defied what he and virtually everyone else had ever come to know about the Grimm.

Yet the absurdity of this moment was tempered by the memories of the Breach just yesterday and how the Grimm had acted then. So perhaps this wasn't completely crazy in a way.

Regardless, he was now merely stretching this out far more than he should.

So securing his blade to his side, Adam approached the Grimm and let the creature of darkness heft him up with stupid ease.

Looking over its shoulder as if to make sure it was indeed now carrying him, the Beringel then let out a grunt before it began to dash off to the west.

As their trek began in earnest, Adam rode on the back of the Beringel in complete silence. But there was a shift in his expression, one of great interest and even amusement after a time.

If this odd control over the Grimm was something this Salem woman could do with ease, then perhaps this deal they have struck will be of benefit after all.

With this in mind, the bull Faunus now found himself looking forward to the meeting much more than before.

* * *

 **A long chapter with not too much content, admittedly, but a necessary one that expanded on the buildup.**

 **Things will be kicking into gear soon enough with plenty more in store for both the characters and you guys, so look forward to it!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	31. Chapter 31

Hey there, everyone! So sorry for the longer than usual wait you had to go through. The chapter I'd finished up last for my original novel I ended up making noticeably longer than usual due to what I'd wanted to write for it. And I found myself once again telling myself that I am really going to have to edit a lot of parts in it, but that can wait until after I finish the novel… which is going to be a long while at the rate I'm going. Oh boy…

Heh, that aside, I'm very excited to eventually be getting my copy of Dies Irae, which is finally being translated into English and will be shipped out sometime in May to its kickstarter project backers, of which I'm one of. Just in time for the anime too in a couple more months or so! Hope the anime will live up to my and the other fans' expectations!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 31

Jeanne considered herself to be one happy girl right now. Sure, classes were still cancelled as many students and faculty were tasked with aiding the police and the Atlas military in making sure Vale was fully secured once more and also helping out in the reconstruction of the destroyed areas, but even then, Jeanne considered herself to be happy.

For right now, she was in the presence of her brother.

Specifically, his lap.

"Like this?" Jaune asked her as he ran a hand gently through her long, unbraided hair, a brush in the other hand as he went to work.

Jeanne could scarcely work up the energy needed to verbally reply, content to just let out an 'Ahhh~' sound of pure pleasure.

It was now the second day following the Breach and now that her injuries were doing much better, she'd gone to her brother's room with the hopes that he'd be there. While she and the other students were quite aware of Jaune's strength, she'd still been worried for his health and so the sight of an uninjured Jaune had warmed her heart, though the sleepy and confused look on his face when he'd first answered the door had also made her laugh a little.

Now it's been fifteen minutes since then and the leader of team JNPR was finally able to spend some leisurely time with her brother, having talked him into reenacting something they used to do as young children.

As she was now once again experiencing, her older brother was very skilled with the brush. A result of living with so many sisters, she supposed, she being one of them.

"Ah~ Just like that!" she finally managed to say after a time.

She heard Jaune chuckle. "I can tell," he said humorously. "I'm glad you're all better."

"Mhm, thanks," Jeanne said, her happy-go-lucky tone gone for the moment. While she'd immediately immersed herself in this sibling-bonding time, Jaune's words were enough to make her recall the Breach most vividly. "I got off pretty lucky compared to others though…"

Remembering the make-shift medical hub that had been set up in Vale, filled with numerous wounded, was enough to make her head slump forward.

"But amazingly, only a relative few died," Jaune remarked solemnly. "I know that's not exactly uplifting, Jeanne… but please keep in mind that it could've been so much worse if everyone hadn't fought as hard as they had."

"I know, but still…" she muttered. "Not to mention the White Fang too."

In the past fifteen minutes, she'd had time to better catch Jaune up on the things she'd experienced during the Breach, the White Fang included. Needless to say, her brother had been most worried when she'd brought them up, but he'd kept his calm fairly well.

She could almost actually hear his grip on the brush tighten though from behind her. "Yeah." He sighed. "I owe Bart one – he'd come to the rescue just in time, it seems."

Jeanne could only nod in agreement, not even bothered by the fact she'd essentially been a damsel in distress at the time. She knew that her skills were lagging behind a number of her fellow first years and up against the White Fang as tired and beat up as she'd been at the time, she'd have been lucky to last even a few seconds.

Still…

She held up her right hand and clenched it into a fist.

She needs to improve a lot more. She could sense something coming, a figurative storm brewing and she didn't want herself or her friends to be as blindsided by it as they all had been by the strange-acting Grimm during the Breach.

"I'm going to need to get much stronger…" she whispered to herself.

Or so she thought.

"I know you will," Jaune said from behind her. She could just picture a soft smile on his face as he kept on brushing.

Something about how immediate and assured his response had been was enough to make her blush profusely. Especially since her words should have been said too low for even him to hear. "T-Thanks for the vote of confidence," she stuttered out. She shyly kicked out her feet as she remained all but rooted to his lap. "But even then… I really do need to improve a lot. I need to be as strong as I can possibly be… so that my team won't have to pay the price for it."

"I'm pretty sure a lot of others feel the same way too in some respect," Jaune replied neutrally. "But if by 'getting stronger,' you only mean strength and combat skill, don't let that thought dominate you."

Jeanne blinked once. Then twice. That wasn't exactly something she'd been expecting to hear.

As if sensing her confusion, her brother continued. "Strength and skill sure are pretty big factors in battle, but those two things alone don't always equate to victory. Remember, you'll be going up against more than just one foe at a time most likely. And they won't show mercy."

…That was a very good point, one that the Breach had painfully illustrated. Even Pyrrha, one of the strongest people she knew around her age had been quickly overwhelmed by the Grimm despite being the strongest member of the team and one of the strongest of the first years.

"Remember too that you have a team at your side – a team that you are the leader of. And a true leader just needs more than pure strength. The ability to actually lead, strategize, and keep the morale strong is also a must," Jaune continued. He then paused for a moment to quietly laugh. "I'm not exactly the leading type, so all of this that I'm saying probably sounds a little sudden to you, but I say this because I _know_ that you have the potential to be a true leader."

The complete sense of confidence that he had in his words was enough to nearly make her entire body turn red from embarrassment and joy. "J-Ja-Jaune, I-!"

"Though I can't ever remember hearing about a 'true leader' being this spoiled," he said with another laugh.

She sputtered and squawked, turning around now to see a somewhat cheeky grin on her brother's face. "I-I'm not that bad!" she weakly said.

Jaune merely held up the brush and nodded his head towards her form, seated firmly upon his lap as her long blonde hair spilled out all over her back. Suffice to say, reality itself denied her weak words.

She pouted, but the pout didn't last long at all when her brother let out a 'pft!' in response, which in turn prompted her to do the same.

Due to him being a(n) (assistant) professor and her being a student, in addition to him having kept to himself the past several months prior to coming to Beacon, this was the first time in quite some time that the two of them had been able to act like they had before.

As if realizing this at the same time, the two Arcs burst into some good-hearted laughter.

"Heh heh~ this sure beats trying to stealthily follow you with my team!"

"Yep, it sure does." A pause. "Wait… what?"

* * *

Blake watched with quirked eyebrows as she walked with her team to get a late breakfast. With Ruby now up and feeling much better, team RWBY was to head to Vale later today and offer any aid possible along with a number of other teams.

And as they all headed to the cafeteria, with one worried Yang all but buzzing about her younger sister, whilst Blake focused on the other member of their quartet.

"Weiss, are you alright?" the cat Faunus eventually said to one perturbed looking heiress.

"Hmm? Yes. Yes, I'm alright," spoke the W of team RWBY rather airily, like she wasn't all there.

Blake wished to deny her words and make her talk, but even now talking wasn't much of a strong point for her. As something of an introvert for the most part, she preferred to just stay back and let others do the talking. As a result, calmly persuading others into spilling their feelings they didn't seem to want to share wasn't exactly her strong suit.

That said, that didn't mean she couldn't notice such things. And with Yang busy fussing over Ruby, said leader focusing more on childishly telling Yang that she was okay and wasn't a child – how ironic – this meant it was up to her to focus on Weiss.

It wasn't as if the heiress had suddenly started sulking or anything. In fact, ever since yesterday morning, it seemed as if something had been weighing heavily on Weiss' mind, if the way she'd become so subdued was any indication. Yet she'd made an effort to try and act as she usually did, prim and proper and somewhat bossy. It was only when she seemed to feel no one was looking that she'd let whatever was nagging her show through in the form of a deeply set frown and clouded eyes.

Blake only even realized this at first by way of having seen Weiss' reflection in the window yesterday morning, a look of deep contemplation and worry having marred the heiress' beautiful face. Since then, she'd taken to observing the girl and it was only now that she'd even bothered saying anything at all.

A part of her wanted to grab Ruby's and Yang's attention and have them help her confront Weiss over this, but that'd just be forcing the issue to an extreme degree. So as much as it went against her nature, it was up to her to talk to Weiss here.

"Are you sure? You've been looking a little…" As well read as she was, Blake struggled to think of a suitable word to use here.

Nonetheless, her unfinished statement made Weiss ever so slightly flinch. "Just… been thinking a bit about how the Breach ultimately turned out."

At that, Blake could only blink. But then she nodded microscopically in understanding. Made sense. Even now, it wasn't all that hard to think of how the Breach went, especially with how the Grimm had been acting during it.

"You mean the Grimm, right?" Blake asked to confirm.

There was a pause before Weiss nodded. "Yes… it's honestly very worrisome how they acted. We may not have suffered much in the way of casualties, so that could be considered something of an achievement…" Weiss uttered those words very quietly, no doubt feeling that any casualties at all was far too much. Blake shared the sentiment. "But the way they were able to outright coordinate and flank all of us is too terrifying to just shrug off. I'm worried that this won't be the last time they act in such a way."

Considering how the Grimm had acted during the Forever Falls event, Blake understood her worry completely. However, it wasn't really until now that she started to dwell on it, a result of simply trying to enjoy the little bit of peace that they all now had, reconstruction aside.

But now that Weiss brings it up, it definitely is something worrisome. Were the Grimm perhaps evolving in some way? It was the only thing that came to mind. If so, just how were they changing this quickly? All these centuries of existence and it's only now that they seem to be changing?

Idly now, Blake wondered what the authorities would make of this and what they'd try to do in response.

That aside, however… "Understandable. Still, it's not like you to be shaken up."

"I know. But these are no longer ordinary circumstances. It's only natural that even I would respond like this to such things," Weiss retorted, but not unkindly.

Blake eyed her with a narrow gaze. Her response had felt just a little too quick there for some reason. Was it nothing, merely her trying to read too much into this? Or did the immediate retort mean something?

"Fair enough. But at least none of us will be confronting these new threats alone, as you all so clearly told me after the pier incident," the Faunus said, feeling a little bemused.

Her words seemed to make the heiress snort a little, but there was a small smile on her face. "Very true… thank you, Blake."

"Anytime, Weiss," Blake said, a small smile on her own face as well.

Well, looks like that hadn't been that hard to do after all. Still, she ought to keep an eye on Weiss just in case.

Never could know when something as equally strange as recent events could pop up.

* * *

Weiss admittedly felt just a little lighter than she had a few minutes ago thanks to Blake. This lightness was a feeling that was further amplified several minutes later after she and her friends got themselves a good breakfast.

But ultimately, neither the brief chat or breakfast were enough to fully lift her spirits.

How could they, after what she'd been told yesterday by Jaune Arc?

Oh, she'd managed to fool Blake a bit with her mention of the Grimm – which had been a legitimate concern of hers anyways – but her real thoughts lied on what she'd learned from the assistant professor.

Even after having dwelled on it all of yesterday and sleeping on it, she still couldn't help but feel like her worldview was being turned around.

It was a small miracle that she'd been able to function at all without walking into things and whatnot, her newfound knowledge consuming her thoughts that much.

A part of her really wanted to tell her friends of what she'd learned as they all got on the bullhead to go to Vale, but alas she held her tongue. Partially, she did so out of respect for Jaune's request to keep things to herself for the time being and partially because she was actually afraid of him.

Rather, she was afraid of that entity that masqueraded as his coat. To think that such a powerful thing was hiding out in plain sight like that… the mere thought made her nearly shudder.

Of course, they were hardly the only team on the bullhead too, with other first year teams such as team CRDL of all people alongside second year teams such as team CFVY that made her stay quiet on the matter, not quite wanting to be overheard.

Still, the mere fact that she knew at all was beginning to drive her insane, made her want to tell at least one other person… but she kept herself in check.

Instead, all the heiress could do was slowly eye her own partner, the young Ruby so unaware of what Weiss now knew about her power, of how much of a game changer it could be against the Grimm… if used properly anyways. And even then, there was no guarantee.

But what occupied her thoughts the most was what Jaune had told her just before sending her off – of a veritable war that was to be starting in just a few more weeks at most, which was far too soon.

Her chest tightened considerably at the thought of this, dread filling her heart. From the little he'd said regarding that particular statement, it seemed like what occurred with the Grimm during the Breach would be playing out on a much larger scale, literally all across Remnant.

They'd gotten very lucky with how the Breach ultimately turned out and that was wording it generously… so to even try to imagine something that far surpassed even that made the Schnee heiress want to turn tail and run as far as she possibly could away from everything. Needless to say, this was one particular feeling that she'd very rarely experienced before, but felt oddly appropriate now.

But alas, she wouldn't run. Couldn't run. She had friends at her side that would fight on no matter how horrifically outnumbered they would soon be. To cowardly flee whilst they stood their ground, no doubt scared out of their minds the whole time, would be a massive affront to them and to everyone else that would end up fighting.

Glancing to her friends whilst their attention remained elsewhere, all Weiss could do was reaffirm her own desire to continue the fight.

No matter how it may ultimately turn out.

* * *

Mercury gulped audibly, feeling just a little bit of worry that was uncharacteristic for the normally lax assassin.

Having essentially been holed up in their dorm for all of yesterday and today, with only a few brief trips to break up the monotony, it was expected for his nerves to start to fray.

Especially when he was being looked at so studiously by Cinder.

He nor Emerald, seated on the floor across the room, had expected their leader to wake up so early in the day. The woman's unexpected awakening had been both relieving and worrying, though for different reasons.

On the one hand, hopefully Cinder had rested up enough to stay awake without a hassle and perhaps figure out what to do next. On the other hand, considering the action Emerald had taken yesterday, Mercury wondered just how their boss would react to going through her scroll like that.

Bedridden or not, it still probably wouldn't be that hard for Cinder to lift a hand and unleash hellfire upon them, potential physical strain be damned.

Thankfully – or maybe not – after she'd awakened and had questioned them on what's been going on, Emerald had been the one to explain everything up until now, including the phone call she'd made. And so far, it didn't seem like Cinder was going to try anything against them.

That said, the gaze she was leveling on him and Emerald wasn't exactly heartwarming. Even if the woman's sour mood was pretty much a given at this point.

"So… what do you think?" he couldn't help but say, if for no other reason than to break the tense silence that had fallen over them.

Sitting up in her bed, Cinder continued to stare as if she hadn't heard him. Mercury felt his heartrate speeding up from growing anxiety. But then she sighed and looked down and his heartrate slowly stabilized shortly thereafter.

"So just to be clear: Emerald, you went through my scroll and called the one you felt would help us out in some manner?" Cinder said slowly to the teal haired girl.

Said girl nodded slowly in confirmation.

"…I see…" Cinder let out a soft sigh and rubbed her forehead before flicking some of her disheveled hair out of her face.

"…Should I not have done that?" Emerald then asked hesitantly. "Or at the very least, should I have called someone else?"

Mercury watched in silence and with baited breath as he waited for his boss to respond. Depending on what her answer was, he could decide how screwed they might be. Well, how much more screwed they might be – as things stood, they were already near or at rock bottom.

"What you did… wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But it was gamble," Cinder said a moment later in a dull tone. "…You told her just about everything?"

"W-Well, it seemed like she already knew quite a bit about your plans, so…" Emerald began, only for Cinder to raise one hand weakly and cut her off.

"I see. Well. Again, not exactly a bad thing," she muttered. Releasing yet another sigh, Cinder slowly began to shift in her bed, a hard thing to do given her new inability to move her legs. But Mercury had to silently applaud her efforts anyways, for she didn't seem to let her most definitely negative emotions show through.

"So what does that mean for us?" he now said, feeling that things were now beginning to wind down a little.

Cinder glared. Not at him, but rather at her lower half, which stilled lied under the blanket. Nonetheless, Mercury nearly flinched at the sight since her gaze was partially facing his direction, making it seem like he was being glared at too.

"Healing will be a priority for myself, but that doesn't mean that we're going to be stuck waiting around for my full recovery. Especially since that would take months, if not years at this rate." She uttered that last sentence venomously, enough to make Mercury and Emerald wince. "With myself out of commission for the time being, I'm going to be relying on you two more than ever."

"Doing what exactly?" Emerald asked, looking a little eager.

Normally, this would be the time Mercury would make fun of the girl for her obviously whipped attitude towards Cinder, but he held his tongue. For once, he couldn't blame her for feeling that way since he too had been wanting something to actually do. And having lacked direction, having Cinder back to now provide it was a welcome sight.

"You said the White Fang members that Adam had brought into the city were taken into custody, yes? See if you can sneak your way to any of them and get them to talk about where their boss might be… I have a feeling he'll only continue to be a thorn in our side if we don't start doing something about him. Go now, since it seems most of the students and officers will be in Vale itself right now."

"Understood!"

As Emerald quickly got up and took off, Mercury waited for the door to close behind her before he faced Cinder, feeling the first embers of optimism burning within him. "So what about me?"

"I want you to take care of the other problem that had plagued us so far," Cinder began, her eyes narrowing as she thought. "Jaune Arc. It's clear to me now that if not for him, things likely wouldn't have spiraled out of control like this. While he's no doubt powerful, surely not even he can shrug off a surprise attack. Find him, follow him, study him… then when you think you have an opportunity, strike him down as quickly as possible."

At that, Mercury felt his heartrate speed up again.

The order he'd just been given wasn't going to be an easy one to execute. Far from it. Based off everything they knew about Jaune Arc – amounting to little beyond his name, really – they knew he was fairly powerful, having initially taken down Roman all that time ago in addition to having been the one to really muck up the Dust theft operation at the pier. Now in spite of his personal opinion about the deceased thief, Mercury knew that Roman was no pushover. The man knew how to fight and he knew how to fight dirty if need be. And he'd had that minx Neo with him during the pier incident too and the petite woman was a far better combatant than even Roman, skilled enough to give even Mercury himself considerable pause.

Yet Jaune Arc, for all intents and purposes, had still been able to force Roman and Neo to retreat at the time… not to mention too there was that video that showed him sparring with that fat Grimm Studies professor…

Yes, Jaune Arc would no doubt be a difficult person to take down. That the young man had also been able to somehow detect he had prosthetic legs despite being physically blind hinted at something else too. What that 'something else' was, Mercury couldn't even fathom… but it would no doubt make the blond all the tougher to take down.

But in spite of all this, Mercury felt little fear. By all rights, he should be asking Cinder to reconsider what she'd just demanded of him, yet he didn't.

For what felt like so long now, they all had been increasingly scrambling by to try and make the plan work and it had all been for naught, with the aftermath having left him and Emerald desperately thinking of something to do to salvage things.

And now here Cinder was doing just that.

Screw the difficulty. He was going to do this or die trying.

"You got it," he said firmly to his boss as he now stood. He could feel a huge smile making its way onto his face. "I'll start right now. The sooner, the better, right?"

Seeing Cinder's subtle smirk and nod of the head, Mercury took his leave without another second to waste.

* * *

As soon as Mercury left, Cinder's smirk dropped faster than a heavy stone in water.

Groaning as her body was still wracked with pain, Cinder shifted into a more comfortable position under the covers, once more looking as if she was going to sleep.

However, her mind was far too active now to consider doing that again, at least not anytime soon.

Her legs were essentially crippled. They'd remain so for possibly a whole year, even with the recuperative power of aura and the maiden power she'd partially stolen to back it up. Or rather, she supposed it'd be more accurate to say that her recovery would take that long precisely because of the maiden power she partially had.

Given how her two most skilled and trusted minions had remained completely unaffected by that silver light alongside virtually everyone else in Vale, it wasn't too much of a hassle to guess what could possibly distinguish her from the others.

That being the maiden power.

She couldn't help but shiver at this realization. If only having a portion of the maiden power had made that silver light this effective against her, just what would've happened if she'd succeeded in fully obtaining the Fall Maiden's power in the first place?

Not that such a thought would stop her from still trying to finish off said maiden to obtain the rest of the power, but doing so would now have to take second priority until she could find a way to neutralize that silver light on the off chance it appears again. Either that or simply figure out a way to guard against it.

In either case, continuing the hunt for the Fall maiden and finding out what had caused that silver light would be tough to do whilst in her current state, especially since she's now tasked her two little helpers with things to hopefully help her recover some of their resources and start from scratch once more. Meaning if she wished to get to the bottom of this most recent pain in her side, she'd have to do it on her own.

Well, that would certainly be cumbersome, but should she succeed, the reward would outstrip the inconvenience and pain.

That being said, however…

There was still one more thing that she'd like to deal with first, but wasn't sure how.

The call Emerald had made to her master… Salem.

Reaching out to the small dresser that lied beside her bed, Cinder grabbed hold of her scroll and proceeded to stare it at quite blankly, no real thoughts coming to her mind on this particular matter.

Salem… while the woman was quite patient and even forgiving of her, Cinder knew better than most about the sort of person Salem was – cunning, cold, and cruel. Push her too much, intentionally or not, and Salem would promptly decide to do away with whoever had irritated her to such a point.

And it wouldn't be painless. Or quick. The enigmatic woman could be most sadistic in that respect, but thankfully only when pushed to such a point. Other than that… Salem was actually quite hospitable, even kind.

She'd have to be, to take her in after finding her all those years ago. Ah, how hard to believe the sort of person she once had been, running away from that painful place she called home and casting off her old surname to take up her current one…

…Now she was getting oddly nostalgaic. That'd have to stop. Salem may have been kind enough to take her in after she'd so foolishly ran into a Grimm infested territory near her home city, but Cinder came to quickly realize that said kindness had been motivated by something more self-serving in nature, though even now she couldn't fathom what that'd be.

The point she was trying to make to herself, however, was that for all her patience, Salem did have a limit to how much she could tolerate and accept failure.

And she wasn't sure whether the complete falling apart of her plan would breach her master's patience limit or not. Even after all this time, it was almost impossible to tell just what would really set Salem off or not.

Huh, now that she bothered to think of it, she hardly knew much about her master other than that she did have some intricate connection with the Grimm and was significantly older than she physically looked. From what little Salem had ever bothered speaking of, Cinder could say with certainty that her master predated the Great War, meaning she'd definitely be more than eighty years of age.

Well, in any case, the lack of personal information about her master wouldn't change her inherent gratitude towards her. Nor would it magically resolve her current situation for that matter.

Now that she was awake, fairly alert, and had already begun planning again, she'd need to contact Salem anyways to update her on the situation, her fear of repercussions be damned.

With only a slight hesitance, Cinder called her master and savior.

* * *

 **Just a brief little chapter to set up some things. Hope the short length won't bug you guys!**

 **In the next few upcoming chapters, you can expect some more plot related stuff and more 'filler' stuff in that the characters will be using this time to simultaneously prepare for the upcoming fights and relax. In other words, expect equal parts actual plot and random humor/ship teasing.**

 **That being said, don't think it won't be completely devoid of action – there's some stuff I have planned that I hope you will like to sort of 'warm up' for the main event!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	32. Chapter 32

Once again, I'm sorry for the wait! Once more, the chapter for my novel turned out longer than I'd expected in addition to some fun personal stuff that was going on. And with two job interviews coming up pretty soon, I think I can say with certainty that the next chapter will also be posted later than usual too! Just giving you all a heads up!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 32

It was now the afternoon, quickly becoming night.

Outside atop one of Beacon's massive stone pillars, Jaune sat and waited with a determined expression on his face.

While he had enjoyed his time with Jeanne earlier today for most of the morning, he'd reluctantly had to bring that time to an end to tend to other matters, such as yet another series of mercifully brief discussions with Ozpin and general Ironwood regarding more strategies to possibly implement, amongst what else could possibly be done to beef up their forces.

Just thinking back on this was enough to nearly make Jaune slump forward in his current position. Although he more than understood their desire to continually improve things and the like, there's only so much that could be done at any one time, let alone be done realistically.

Never mind the fact that he and Tenebrous had their own separate worries too…

Alas, the blond blind man was merely happy to be free for the remainder of the day and at such a perfect time too.

He'd honestly been meaning to do so much earlier in the day, but his sister's visit had taken him by surprise, albeit it'd been a pleasant surprise.

But now that he had the time, he now eagerly awaited the return of the students from Vale, many of them having gone out to help with reconstruction.

Including one team RWBY, whose team leader was long overdue for a 'talk' with him.

Hmm, now that he thought of it, maybe it was good that things had worked out this way – given that Weiss _and_ Ruby had seen him and Tenebrous together with the maiden, there was a decent chance that the young silver eyed girl would begin to be suspicious of him, especially since his talk with Weiss would prevent said girl from telling Ruby anything about what was going on.

This meant that under more normal circumstances, the young team leader would likely keep her distance from him. However, after what had to be a long day out in Vale on business with the majority of the other students here (Beacon and otherwise), Ruby would no doubt be too wiped out to take off running at the mere sight of him, assuming she'd feel so inclined.

Which was honestly a good thing; would save him the trouble of having to corner her and make her talk to him…

"…Wow, that sounded creepy…" he muttered to himself as hindsight kicked in.

 _But it must be done. We cannot put this off any longer, Jaune._

Ah and there was Tenebrous chiming in with his opinion yet again. His very much correct opinion, Jaune idly noted as he simply nodded in agreement.

Indeed. Again, he couldn't help but ponder how differently everything could've turned out if he and Tenebrous had simply been honest with the others about what was going on. But that was the past now and there was absolutely no changing that. And besides, he probably would've been written off as crazy or dangerous if the events that had taken place thus far had turned out differently or hadn't happened at all.

"There she is," he said to himself and to his friend as the bullheads the students took to Vale earlier finally closed in on the school, the auras of the students lighting up the aircrafts' forms.

It was Ruby's aura that he immediately locked onto, the girl appearing to be sitting alongside her team and as the bullhead carrying team RWBY neared one of Beacon Academy's many landing pads, Jaune lightly jumped off the pillar to go and greet them.

Walking forward with his 'coat' billowing slightly from the wind, he made sure to keep to the side as the bullheads began to touchdown and let the students disembark.

Normally, he'd draw looks from the other students thanks to the infamy(?) he'd gained, but all of the students seemed so utterly worn out that he detected none looking his way.

Waiting half a moment, Jaune finally saw the forms of team RWBY exit off the bullhead and they just so happened to be walking in his general direction.

Blanking out on whether or not he should try to be discrete about this, Jaune immediately decided to just throw caution to the wind. Now wasn't the time to be second-guessing anything, let alone something so minor.

"Excuse me! Ms. Rose!" he called out as he made his way to team RWBY.

He could scarcely hear said team in the midst of what sounded like a light-hearted conversation, but when he called out just now, he saw their auras shift slightly, indicating their tired surprise. And when he felt their eyes all turn to him, he took note of Weiss' aura indicating something akin to worry, though very mild. As for Blake, well, it looked like the Faunus still seemed to not like him very much, if the way her aura rapidly shifted from suspicion was anything to go by.

Oh well, that was nothing new.

In any case, though, it seemed like Ruby only seemed confused, judging by the way her aura fluctuated just now. So Jaune took some solace in knowing that the girl didn't seem to suddenly start suspecting him of anything like he'd worried. Then again, she could just be too tired to care much about that kind of thing right now.

"Er, something up, Mr. Arc?" the young girl asked as he neared. She was apparently so tired that she'd taken to calling him formally rather than addressing him in the casual manner other students did.

"Nothing much per say," he began. "We just need to talk for a little bit. Just between you and me."

He saw once more confusion ripple through the girl's aura along with curiosity from Yang, a sort of resigned frustration and understanding from Weiss, and even greater than usual suspicion from Blake.

He held up his hands as if to placate their emotions. "You're not in any kind of trouble if that's what you're worried about. But there is a matter that we need to address, the sooner the better. Then you can head on back to your dorm to rest up."

By throwing in those last several words, he alleviated whatever uncertain feelings team RWBY may be having.

Ruby simply nodded. "Oh, ok then!"

Smiling gratefully, he motioned for the girl to follow him. "Let's head somewhere a little quieter, okay?" He then bid a quick goodbye to the other members of the team and walked off, Ruby following along.

With his back temporarily to the girl, he let out a quiet sigh.

He could already imagine the barrage of questions he'd undoubtedly get once he was done telling her what he had to tell her.

He just hoped that once this was taken care of, it'd be to everyone's benefit.

* * *

From a safe distance, Mercury watched as the blind (assistant) professor walked off with that Ruby girl in tow.

He could only quirk an eyebrow in genuine wonder.

For what reason did this blond enigma need to speak with that annoying girl about?

He'd done his best to follow the man all day thus far, but without too much success. For most of the morning, the young blond had been holed up in his room with his sister from the looks of things and had then gone up to the headmaster's office for what he assumed was a meeting that lasted _hours_. It wasn't until fairly recently that the meeting finally ended and this Jaune guy had spent most of that time since then just sitting on a goddamned stone pillar like some kind of statue.

Which, of course, had then led to this current situation…

Following behind the two of them from several meters back, Mercury expertly slipped in and out of the passing crowds of students returning from Vale, his grey eyes locked onto Jaune and Ruby in a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and frustration.

The first two emotions were pretty self-explanatory to anyone that would ever end up in his boots, but the frustration required some self-reflection.

Just why exactly was he growing so irritated right now by watching this blond bastard? It wasn't as if he was going to suddenly do something that would make for a great way to get back at him. Life simply doesn't work that way, no matter how smart or stupid people could be.

In any case, Mercury figured that maybe he'd just been so eager to finally do something about his most recent situation that he'd forgotten to keep his standards for results at a noticeably lower level than usual.

He continued to follow after his two targets made their way back to Beacon, but a different part than where the dorms resided.

…Seems like they were going to the main building, where the classrooms were located at. Were they just going for a quiet place to talk in? Or was there something else going on that he was missing here?

Gah, he really should've come up with some sort of plan before just stalking off after Jaune like this, cause it seemed like all he was doing was wasting his time. And while it looked like this would be as good a time as any to try ambushing and hopefully killing this interfering guy, with the Ruby girl near him, there was a damn good chance she'd try and help the guy. That'd be a bit more trouble than it's worth, having to deal with her too, especially since taking her out would get those teammates of hers raining hell down on everyone and everything until they got answers.

So attacking right now would just be much more trouble than it's worth. Not to mention that taking out Jaune now would ruin any possibility of figuring out if he had any kind of plan in place to further screw him and Cinder over in the future.

With no other options other than to press on or turn in for the day, Mercury chose to go with the first option and continued his stalking.

He could only grumble to himself as the duo just kept on walking to seemingly nowhere in particular.

Whatever was going on right now with these two, he sure hoped it would yield some results for him.

* * *

Of all the things Adam had ever expected to see in his life – other than the White Fang being victorious in their goals – he'd never once even imagined seeing some place quite like this.

A barren landscape with the rocky ground and surrounding hills and mountaintops looking like something straight out of some fantastical horror story, whatever passing for soil seeming so very dark and unnatural. Sunlight never seemed to reach this little corner of the world, with only the broken moon so far up above him shining down on the land, looking remarkably out of place given that the surrounding sky was an unnerving mixture of crimson red and purple in color.

A dark energy filled this entire land and with every step he took, the Bull Faunus could feel uncontrollable shivers racing up and down his spine at Mach speeds. Such was the extreme discomfort – this was putting it mildly still – that he was feeling as he continued his trek.

Of course, it didn't help soothe his nerves that this place seemed to be completely crawling with Grimm. Up in the sky, small flocks of massive Nevermores circled over him and the nearby mountains. Atop some of the cliffs that overlooked this pathway were dozens if not even hundreds of Alpha Beowulves and Ursas. The Beringel that had essentially piggybacked him here was following several feet behind him, the dangerous gorilla-based Grimm's eyes never leaving Adam's back. A few more Beringels were also following along a little further back and more spaced out, no doubt ready to box him in and pummel him if he so much as twitched funny.

Adam swore he could hear the eardrum-grating screeches of Creeps too from somewhere close by, yet he didn't dare look to see if this really was the case.

Instead, he focused upon the castle that was only just a little ways before him. It looked exactly like the kind of castle he recalled seeing in storybooks as a young and foolish child, yet much like the surrounding land, it seemed… warped. Perhaps even outright perverted on a scale that he couldn't fully comprehend.

The spires atop some of the buildings seemed jagged… and ever so slightly caked with blood, if his eyes weren't deceiving him. The castle lights were few in number and dim, the stone looking rough and dark in color, as if it were formed from volcanic rock.

Yeah, the castle sure seemed inviting, the more sarcastic part of his mind silently remarked, causing Adam to grimace a bit. His grip on his weapon tightened microscopically, only to relax immediately when the Beringels behind him began to growl. Evidently, they'd noticed his action just now. He was going to have be careful with how he acted, lest he be swarmed by God knows how many damned Grimm.

As he neared, the intimidatingly large castle doors opened… to reveal nothing, save the massive entryway, so dark in nature that not even he with his Faunus-given night vision could see through completely.

This darkness before him… it was definitely even more unnatural than everything else here thus far. He almost actually prayed that what he was doing here would turn out to be the right thing.

"Welcome, Adam Taurus."

A sudden voice, clearly that of the woman he'd spoken to before, called out from the darkness. His right eye twitched from the surprise. Thankfully, his mask covered this slip.

"…Where are you?" he responded neutrally.

"Why, I'm right here… in a manner of speaking." The woman then let out a slight giggle, like that of some teasing schoolgirl. It made the hairs on the Bull Faunus' neck stand straight up. Looks like he'd just encountered something even more unearthly than this darkness, after all.

"What do you me-?" he began, only to stop when some _thing_ emerged from the darkness.

Some type of Grimm he'd never quite seen before. The first thing that came to his mind was that it looked like some kind of jellyfish… and that was only because of its general shape. However, its 'tentacles' were more along the lines of pointed whips, meant to impale rather than lash. It was large in size, almost as big as Adam's upper torso, though the jagged spikes atop the thing's white mask that covered its bulbous form made it look just a little bigger. What looked like teeth – Adam hoped to hell that they weren't – jutted out from the bottom, carefully concealed by the tentacles.

This Grimm, unusual in its design, literally floated its way to Adam. And then it _spoke_. In that woman's voice.

"I've been waiting for your arrival. I hope your trip here had been… eye-opening," said the voice, the creature's one red eye pulsating with every word spoken.

Eye-opening. That certainly was one way of putting it. The way he and the Beringel had traveled west, the 'normal' landscape eventually giving way to this warped land had boggled his mind.

"…Just what in the hell is this? How are you doing this?" he couldn't help but ask, a sense of trepidation filling his voice against his own will.

A chuckle emanated from the Grimm, its tentacles writhing. God, how much he wanted to cut it down right now, if only to put himself somewhat at ease. Not that such a relief would last long with the Beringels still so close behind him.

"Perceptive. Good."

This Grimm before him obviously wasn't the one he'd spoken to on his scroll. This thing was merely some kind… some kind of intermediary here. He wasn't sure how nor why, but this woman he was about to meet with was somehow capable of controlling and even _communicating_ through the Grimm! Like some kind of puppet almost…

But how in the world…?

"Come. Follow my little friend here to me. We have much to discuss," spoke the woman through her so called 'little friend.'

Said Grimm turned in midair and began to float deeper within the castle.

Adam could only stare numbly for a few seconds, his mind trying to comprehend the situation he was finding himself in right now. A small part of him that he'd thought had long since died urged him to flee, to turn tail and run as far as he could, the sheer number of Grimm here be damned. Death would certainly be better than whatever would result from this meeting.

But he squashed this urge mercilessly. He's already come this far. Backing out now would just be foolish in every possible way.

This woman had all but promised him resources, a means to get back at the damned humans that pushed all Faunus down. For this goal, he'd make a deal with the devil itself, if that's what it will take.

And perhaps he'd be able to get some revenge on that green haired bastard as well… and that damned blonde that had unintentionally stalled them long enough for the guy to appear in the first place…

…And perhaps even see Blake again, if fate allowed such a thing. Oh, the things the two of them have to 'discuss.'…

His resolve hardened once more, Adam stepped forward, into what can only be hell itself.

* * *

Off in the far distance, the ominous castle still in sight if only barely, crouched a man. Messy raven black hair with red eyes. A disheveled grey button up shirt and black pants and boots, complete with a dark red cloak. A large sword at his side that was at odds with his otherwise lanky physique.

This man was none other than Qrow Branwen, one of Ozpin's inner circle.

And boy oh boy, did he feel like he could use a drink right now. He wasn't getting paid enough for this kind of shit.

Not that drink or pay would matter much in the end if things went south.

When he'd first been given this mission to head out as far west into the badlands as possible, Ozpin had made sure to first sit him down and update him on what's new.

And holy hell, there'd been _a lot_ of stuff that was new.

Gods 'born' from humanity's beliefs and some kind of planetary Will? Grimm made from these two gods and humanity's darkness? Some kid acting as one of these god's servant or something along those lines? Salem being some kind of rogue servant or at least something close to one?

All the information Ozpin had so bluntly heaped on him had left his throat parched from start to finish. Even now, after having emptied the rest of his flask just moments ago, his throat felt so dry from the sheer shock of it all still. To be fair to himself, however, he had been sent on this mission right after being told all that was new, so he couldn't be blamed too much for still suffering from an information overload.

But his stupor hadn't affected his ability to do his mission properly – he'd ducked and weaved and sped his way through the badlands as much as possible without raising any kind of alarm. It sure as hell hadn't been easy though. Or quick despite his own efforts. There were simply too many Grimm mucking about in this twisted corner of the earth and fighting in any capacity hardly sounded appealing.

For if he had been spotted and forced to fight, he'd have no doubt been overwhelmed in short order.

Qrow knew he was a damn good huntsmen, one of the best alive right now. But against a veritable army of Grimm of all kinds? He'd be lucky to kill a few before the rest just crushed him under their numbers. He highly doubted his own semblance would be able to get him out of a situation like that should it occur.

"But _damn…_ " he muttered, unable to help himself from breaking the silence as he stayed hidden under a leaning rock as he'd looked onwards with his binoculars.

It'd been brief, but he could've sworn he'd seen a man being escorted by a team of Beringels just now up to that creepy looking castle. And while he hadn't been able to get a look at the guy's face, the hairstyle, clothes, weapon, and horns had been enough for him to identify the guy anyways.

"Adam Taurus," Qrow confirmed aloud, his eyes narrowing in suspicion and worry.

Just why would a guy like him be all the way out here? Just how did he seem to know Salem? Why was he being freakin' escorted by _Grimm_ of all things?

Sure, the info he'd learned sort of explained a bit, but this situation only raised more questions than he had answers for.

Qrow sighed.

Personally, he'd like to just turn around and get the hell out of here. He'd gotten this little tidbit of information and he really ought to call up Ozpin from a much safer area to let him know about this… but alas, simple reconnaissance in and of itself hadn't been the mission.

If possible, he was to try and figure out as much as was possible… and if possible as well, deal some kind of blow against Salem.

That was one freakishly tall order to fill, but was it outside of his capabilities? That was a question Qrow couldn't answer… not without at least trying first.

"You're gonna owe me so much for this, Oz… so, so much," he grumbled as he creeped his way forward from his little hiding spot, his senses on high alert for any of the many surrounding Grimm. It was a small mercy that the Grimm seemed to be congregating elsewhere for the time being, but he wasn't going to count on it remaining that way for long.

He got close enough to see the castle doors close behind the Beringels, said Grimm having been the ones to close them. He had to admit that it left him rather impressed. Hearing about what Salem could do from Oz and their new pals was one thing. Seeing it in action, if only on a minor scale was something else.

…Which only meant that he was in for the long haul if he was going to try anything. If the Grimm truly were connected to Salem in such a way, then he can expect sneaking into the castle to be a pain in the ass.

Well, if he tried to do so as a human, he silently considered as he spotted the open windows on the upper floors. He allowed himself a slight grin at this sight.

Looking momentarily to see if there were any Nevermore flying directly above the castle, Qrow saw his chance and ran as silently yet as quickly as he could to the edge of the cliff.

Then he leapt off and started to fall… only to rise up again as a crow and take flight.

* * *

"Umm…" Ruby tried to think of something to say. She really did, but words were failing to come to mind.

For the past few minutes, she'd been following Jaune Arc to one of the classrooms and during their little walk thus far, he'd remained quiet whilst with an expression that he was in deep thought. She didn't want to disturb his thinking, but at the same time she'd like to know more about whatever kind of talk they were about to have apparently.

But thankfully for the socially awkward girl, she didn't have to say anything when Jaune finally veered to the left, entering one of Beacon's large classrooms, meant to hold up to more than double the amount of people that other classrooms can hold. Some kind of massive lecture hall for special events, if the young leader recalled correctly.

"Here we go," Jaune muttered as he then ushered her into the room. She hesitantly walked in, feeling the assistant professor's dull blue eyes on her as she did so. Not for the first time, she really wondered if he was blind.

And as the door closed shut, the girl couldn't help but feel a little worried – she was without her weapon given the nature of the students' mission in Vale and still pretty tired. While she liked to think that she and the other students had gotten a grasp for the kind of person the blind young man is, she suddenly felt uncomfortable being alone with him seeing as they were now so far away from the others.

This discomfort must have shown on her face along with indications of which direction her thoughts were going in because Jaune suddenly held up his hands as if to placate. "I know what this must suddenly look like to you, but wait – we really just need to talk." He said this quickly and with a tone of urgency.

Ruby felt herself settle down a bit, if only slightly.

The blond young man then walked forward, slipping off his coat and setting it on the chair that went with the teacher's desk, which lied on the opposite end of the massive room. He then circled around the desk and leaned against it whilst sweeping with his hand towards the row of seats in front of him.

Slowly, Ruby went and sat across from him, albeit on the desk itself and not on the chair.

"So…" she began, unsure of what to even say.

Jaune looked a little conflicted. Then he suddenly sighed. "I'll be blunt: remember what exactly happened in Vale? What you and Weiss stumbled across right before your eyes started to hurt?"

Fresh memories of that moment flooded her mind as soon as he said that. She remembered the two of them running with all of their weapons back to Blake and Yang. She remembered their mad sprint back being interrupted by a woman she'd never seen before suddenly crashing into the ground before them… followed by a massive humanoid _thing_ landing almost immediately thereafter. Oh, how her eyes had hurt in those precious few seconds after seeing those two…

…and although it was much vaguer, she could recall ever so slightly being on the verge of complete unconsciousness, hearing the very same young man before her right now having a brief chat with that… that creature.

And now with that particular memory in mind, she couldn't help but feel nervous. Was the guy before her in league with that Grimm-like thing?

Jaune then nodded, accepting her words. "Well, I know why your eyes hurt."

Well, that wasn't something she'd expected to hear so out of the blue. It was enough to make said eyes go wide and momentarily forget any sense of discomfort. "You do?"

Another nod. "They must have hurt quite a bit, right? To be expected, given it was your awakening that took out all the Grimm in Vale."

A complete silence fell upon immediately after that. Jaune was clearly waiting for some kind of reply, yet all Ruby could do in immediate response was stare at him blankly.

Her mind took to replaying his words just now several times over. Yet the words refused to be computed by her mind.

"W-Wait… what?" she eventually said. "I did that? No way!" She exclaimed that last part in pure disbelief, shaking her hands frantically in the process.

"Yes way," Jaune countered in bemusement, a small smile on his face. He then gently pointed to her face. Specifically, to her eyes. "Ruby… do you really think that particular eye color of yours is common?"

"Er, no?"

Jaune nodded firmly. "That's right. Silver eyes aren't all that common at all. And there's a reason for that – it's literally a sort of genetic mutation formed a long time ago."

"G-Genetic mutation?" Ruby parroted.

"Yes. One formed from trial and error millennia ago," Jaune began. "You've heard the phrase 'the eyes are the window to the soul,' right? Well, back then, a small group of people had taken this phrase a little too literally after aura was discovered. They tried to figure out a way to manifest their aura through their eyes for the sole purpose of hurting and even killing the Grimm. It was eventually successful… but their attempts to get it right damaged their eyes in the process. Nothing too severe; their aura fixed it up… but the damage done to the pigmentation was such that when their aura healed it, their eye color was permanently changed to silver."

At that, Jaune quirked an eyebrow and motioned towards her.

And all she could do in response was stare back dumbly, her fatigued mind working to process this. "But… if that's really true, then how do I have these eyes?"

"Because the damage dealt to their eyes extended down to their very genes due to how intense the 'aura bursts' that the eyes could let out were. As such, the altered genes were simply passed on from generation to generation. And now here you are, with the silver eyes that they'd formed so long ago, their innate power having been locked away until some trauma came along to force an awakening," Jaune finished up.

Ruby could only stare. The physical and mental fatigue she'd accumulated during the long day in Vale seemed to just fade as her mental faculties kicked into overdrive to digest everything she's been told in just these past few minutes.

She had several questions, to say the least… but only one was able to slip out of her mouth at this time. "If this really is true, then how do you know all of this?"

Jaune smiled a little ruefully. He then cocked his head to the side and his dull blue eyes looked away. "I have a friend that's been around for quite some time. He's the one who gave me all of these history lessons."

"A friend?"

"Mhm… you and Weiss met him on that day," Jaune said.

Images of that moment once more appeared in her mind. The confirmation of her earlier suspicion wasn't as shocking as she'd thought it'd be. "That thing…?!"

"Mhm. Don't worry, he's on humanity's side. We both are," Jaune said quickly. He once again was holding up a hand to placate her. It was at this point that Ruby realized she was standing up. Wow, when had she gotten up?

Ruby continued to stare at the young man before her. And then she felt her eyes narrow. "So… I have this super-secret power that could be used against the Grimm," she stated.

"Yes."

"It was something formed a really long time ago and ever since then, it's been literally passed down like some kind of genetic trait."

"That's right."

"And it wasn't until the Breach occurred that I finally unlocked it. And now you're telling me all this so that I'm not in the dark on it."

"Exactly."

At that, Ruby's flat gaze turned to one of concern. "…So why exactly are you telling me all of this now? Is it just because I awakened it?"

"Not quite, Ruby…" Jaune began. He sighed. "…The Breach was little more than an opening act. In a few more weeks, another attack will occur, one that'll make the Breach look downright enjoyable in comparison. Those that need to know right now are already working to prepare for it and although the students are being kept in the dark on it, we'll be altering lessons to prep them for it. But it still won't be enough. Your power, now that it's awakened, will be needed, Ruby."

Her stomach started to churn dangerously from nerves. "W-Will it really be that bad?"

"More than I can honestly put into words," Jaune responded. "I know this is a lot to suddenly heap on you. If I could do so, I'd undo all of this to keep you and others safe… but life doesn't work that way and everyone in this school desires to become huntsmen and huntresses, so I guess now's a better time than any to really get that experience. Of course, you don't have to use your silver eyes' power if you really don't want to, but…"

"…But it could make a difference, right?" Ruby asked quietly.

"If used right, then yes. But as you should know already, it takes quite a bit out of the user. Future uses won't take as much aura out of you as the awakening did, but it will be significant. If you really do wish to use it, you'll need to make each sparing use count."

She still had so many questions that she wanted to ask. But one look at Jaune made her hold her tongue on that front.

He definitely wasn't lying to her about any of this. As socially awkward as she is, she could tell that much.

…ever since she was a little girl… ever since her mom died… she'd always wanted to be a huntress. She'd always wanted to help the people, protect them from the Grimm. If what Jaune said wasn't exaggerated, then now more than ever was the opportunity to do just that. If her new power could help her accomplish her goal to help, then she'll definitely put it to use, no matter how much out of her it might take.

Feeling her own eyes – her silver eyes – narrowing from her now burning determination, she looked up to Jaune gratefully.

"I see," she said quietly. "I still have a boatload of questions about all of this… but thank you for telling me in the first place, Jaune."

The young man smiled solemnly. "You're welcome… just try not to overdo things too much. I can tell what sort of thoughts you're having right now… and remember that you're counted among the people too."

Ruby smiled softly. "Right."

If nothing else, she could definitely say that this out of the blue talk was informational. Now to just start putting what she's now learned to good use in the future.

* * *

Mercury scowled.

Here he was, just outside the room his target and that Ruby girl had gone into. With the door closed, sneaking in would naturally be impossible without being spotted somehow, so he'd taken to initially pressing his ear against the door to try and hear what they were saying.

That had proved futile, however, for whatever conversation they were having was being spoken quite softly and too far away from the door for him to properly hear.

The only small mercy he had was that unlike the dorms and faculty only rooms throughout the rest of the academy, the classrooms here had traditional doors, which meant that the locks could be unlocked and locked by keys rather than anyone's scrolls. This meant there was a small keyhole to look through and that is what he ultimately ended up doing.

And it was a real killer on his legs for remaining in a kneeled position like this for so long. Seriously, just what the hell could they be talking about for so long?!

It didn't help that the keyhole wasn't all that big so he could just barely see them with one eye. They were too far away for him to attempt to lip-read, but he could at least see their expressions somewhat.

Whatever serious conversation they'd been having earlier had apparently now given way to something more casual. If he had to hazard a guess, it seems like the blond punk had been telling the Ruby girl of something pretty damned important and now they were simply hashing out details, probably of some kind of plan they'd formed or something.

He could be wrong though. Not that he'd ever want to admit to this possibility.

In any case, all he could do was continue watching in an increasingly vain attempt to try and read their lips, but the distance between the door and them in addition to the keyhole size made this practically impossible.

Bah, what a waste this was seriously turning out to be. From the very moment Jaune Arc placed his coat on the chair up until now, he'd managed to discover absolutely nothi-.

-Wait. Hold up.

Mercury's eye narrowed in confusion.

What had now grabbed his attention could very well be just a minor detail. Maybe even outright irrelevant…

…But just where was Jaune Arc's coat now?

Suddenly the open space in the keyhole turned pitch black, making it impossible to see anything anymore. Needless to say, Mercury was startled, enough to nearly flinch back.

But it was when a small red glow then appeared in the absolute blackness that Mercury was truly shocked, to the point of even freezing in place.

It wasn't just some completely random flash of light. If he didn't know any better, it felt more like some kind of incorporeal _eye_.

Some _thing_ was looking right at him.

The instant this realization struck him, Mercury ended up stumbling back on pure instinct, his eyes wide. Quickly upright, he wasted no time in dashing off after that.

He was out of breath the whole time as he ran, not from physical fatigue but from the shock he'd just received.

The sense of dread that had welled up within just now, just as that red glow – "eye. It was some kind of eye" he muttered – had bore into him with its gaze… it was the same sort of feeling he'd gotten when he'd been sent to that rundown factory, where he'd found what was left of Torchwick and his crew.

"Cinder needs to know, she needs to know!" he could help but exclaim to himself.

But know what, precisely? His mind couldn't exactly put it in words right now. But he did gain one bit of knowledge from his little outing today, even if it was more along the lines of pure intuition rather than actual information.

Somehow, Jaune Arc had something directly to do with the deaths of Torchwick and the grunts that had been there with him.

As he kept on running, Mercury wasn't beginning to feel as confident as he did earlier about ambushing Jaune anymore.

Oh yes, he wasn't feeling confident at all anymore.

* * *

 **Again, apologies for the late update! And after thinking on things a bit, I get the feeling that future chapters will, for a time, take a little longer than usual to be posted too. I say this because I can foresee at least the next several chapters for my original novel being longer than what I've written before until now, which naturally means more time will be spent on them.**

 **That being said, I hope that this chapter, nearly 7,000 words long (including the Ans) will make up for things a little bit. That, and the official introduction of Qrow into this fic, ha ha ha. Hope you will look forward to what'll happen next with him.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	33. Chapter 33

Whew, feels like I managed to get around to this chapter a little more quickly than I had with the previous one, ha ha.

Hope all of you have been doing well and that things have been going great for you guys!

As has become the norm nowadays for me, there really isn't much else for me to say other than that – as always – I hope you will enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 33

The blackness known as Tenebrous watched from the shadows in the hallway as one Mercury Black ran off. It made no comment, let alone even form any real thoughts on the matter until a few minutes later, Ruby Rose left for her dorm, none the wiser to what had just happened or what was truly going on.

Waiting until Ruby was well out of its sight for the moment, Tenebrous slinked back into the classroom, where Jaune calmly waited for it.

It didn't even have to say anything to know what it was about to say. Somewhat, at least. "Something up?" Jaune asked with a quirked eyebrow.

 _You and Ruby Rose had a follower…_

It started off with that and then quite succinctly explained what had happened. To its complete nonsurprise, Jaune looked a little worried. "Should we do something about this?"

 _Perhaps, but it isn't too pressing an issue. He was too far away from you two to hear anything, so any potential information he could've picked up is close to nothing. However, by spooking him the way I did, he would likely now know that there may be a connection of sorts between you and my activities at the factory._

By that, it of course meant its killing of Roman Torchwick and his crew. Whilst the blackness couldn't know for sure if the young man it had just scared off was the one to investigate that abandoned place, it seemed highly probable since the young Mercury had the look of a man who did most of the legwork for his boss, the now useless Cinder Fall.

Given the feeling of dread that its very presence could instill in people and how such a feeling tends to sometimes linger in places it has been a little active in, Mercury Black had likely connected the dots by now.

Not that it mattered very much in the long run; with Cinder incapable of fighting any longer and her plans ruined beyond salvaging, there was very little that she with her two pawns could achieve. To be perfectly frank, they were simply running around in the dark at this point, no matter what they may be doing.

Nonetheless…

 _You should know as well as I do that those three are no longer a real threat. Barely even a distraction at this point. From the very beginning, Salem never truly needed them to do anything other than to merely serve as a smokescreen while she continued to build her forces and place them. With how the Breach ultimately turned out, she will have no doubt already taken some steps to ensure she no longer has any real use for the three._

"So in other words, whatever they might trying to do now… will just be going against Salem, you think?" Jaune asked. "Not intentionally on their part, of course, but it's just them running on fumes now, right?"

 _Correct. Whatever they may try to do will simply be for nothing as Salem has no doubt already altered her plan that will make their actions completely moot from start to finish. That said, if you feel so inclined, we could do away with them entirely…_

In other words, why not just kill them off like they had done with Torchwick and others? At this point, Tenebrous was beginning to learn the emotion of pity just because of the irreversible state Cinder and her two lackeys were now in.

However, at what he was implying, Jaune shook his head. "No need to go far, you know. Even with what they've done to get to this point, just to kill them while in their current state just feels…" He trailed off.

If the blackness had eyebrows, they'd be raised right now. Alas, being an essential fog of darkness, the most it could manage right now was simply swirl about a little more quickly than usual.

 _Does the mere thought of killing them bother you?_

Its Apostle fell silent, an expression of deep thought on his face. It was nearly two minutes before he finally replied. "…The idea of killing in and of itself surprisingly doesn't bother me," Jaune began. "I understand that sometimes it is necessary to preserve peace and whatnot… but killing them now of all times after this just feels like it'd just be needlessly cruel for some reason. I mean, their plans have already come crashing down on them. Cinder's pretty much a paraplegic and may remain that way the rest of her life if she's unlucky, even with the portion of the Fall Maiden power she has. The other two are merely followers and incapable of really doing things on their own, so they're all just sort of… I don't know, just stuck where they're at."

 _In other words, you pity them._

That is more or less what its Apostle was saying. And the mere thought of this was enough for the 'god' to feel a sense of bemusement. Both of them felt pity towards the three, but whereas it wished to more or less put them out of their misery, Jaune felt doing so would simply be too cruel even for them.

At that statement, Tenebrous watched as Jaune chuckled a little sheepishly. "When you put it that way, I guess so, if I'm being honest with myself here. Besides that, though, aren't they already being monitored by general Ironwood? He may not have ever mentioned anything like that, but from what I can tell about the guy, he's not one to leave things to chance."

A fair point; the Atlas military general was quite the paranoid individual. It'd be more of a surprise if he didn't have some form of surveillance going on regarding Cinder and her two minions right now. And perhaps the only reason why Ironwood likely hasn't done anything about them is that he's waiting for them to do something more concrete than just simple stalking.

That and he's likely busy trying to prepare for the Trial too.

 _A valid point. Still, I stand by what I'd said._

"Figured as much," Jaune replied before sighing. "Well, it seems we're at something of an impasse here. You feel it might be necessary to off them, and I don't. How about we settle for something in between?"

The blackness found itself intrigued. It was a bit rare for Jaune to be thinking up things like this. Normally the young man was content with followings its advice and acting on the information they both knew.

 _What do you have in mind?_

The strained yet somehow confident smirk on its Apostle's face rather surprised Tenebrous. As did his following words somewhat.

"Remember some of those horror flicks I told you about from my childhood?"

* * *

Within the massive and eerie castle that served as her base, Salem calmly looked out the large window in the ballroom that she was currently standing in. In doing so, she could admit to feeling a little nostalgic in a way, recalling the vivid descriptions of castles she used to read about as a young and naïve child in storybooks, the ballroom being where many people came together for some kind of celebration, where some romances were sometimes sparked.

Had she ended up constructing this ballroom out of some unconscious memory? One of longing? Out of spite? Not even she knew for sure why she'd bothered making such a room when this castle was formed, but she found her introspective thoughts on the matter rather amusing as she continued to look upon the partially broken moon that was so far above the world…

The creaking of the doors to the room pulled her out of her thoughts and her eyes away from the moon. With a single graceful movement that looked unnatural given her visage, she turned and smiled ever so slightly as her guest finally reached her.

Adam Taurus. One of the more higher ranking members in the pointless White Fang organization. Not to mention one of the group's biggest misanthropes, which was no small feat given how much many others within the group hated humanity.

Ah, the poor fools. If only they knew the truth, they'd all likely die from the shock. And the bullheaded man now walking up to her slowly might very be one of the first to drop dead in such a scenario…

The thought of it nearly made her laugh. As did the sight of Adam Taurus, upon seeing her, flinching back, no doubt surprised by her appearance. Evidently, he'd had some expectations to as how she looked and she'd just gone and shattered them just like that.

"Salem, I presume?" the man spoke a few seconds later as her little pet, having led him here, slowly levitated over to her.

She gave it an almost loving stroke upon its bulbous form before replying to the man. "You presume correctly." She sent her little pet away for the moment and bowed a little towards her guest. "Welcome, Adam Taurus. I hope your little trek here had been… eye-opening."

Her guest made no response to that, but the slight grimace was adequate enough in telling her how he felt. Truly, bearing witness to Grimm acting in such a manner would be startling for just about anyone, she imagined.

"…So just what is this deal you wanted to discuss with me?" Adam eventually said gruffly.

Straight to the point. She could admire that. Only a little bit, however. "It's quite simple, really. You do something for me and in return, I do something for you."

"And just what would that 'something' be?" Adam retorted.

"You wish to see the kingdom of Vale fall. As do I. Our reasons for this may differ, but nonetheless our goals coincide," Salem explained. "However, you lack manpower to make it happen. I can fix that, I believe."

With just a meager thought, she summoned several Nevermores from outside the castle. She felt them respond to her thought and they cawed as they then began to circle more tightly around the castle, the larger ones flying right past the massive window she'd just been looking out whilst the smaller ones passed through the smaller windows that were located on the second floor of the ballroom, which overlooked where she was currently at.

She relished in the flinch Adam developed in that moment, unmindful of how the man tightly gripped the sheathe of his blade in obvious worry.

She hid her delight well, however, and pressed onwards. "As you can surmise, the Grimm and I have a special, ah, 'relationship,' I suppose you can say. Should I tell them to, any number of them will obey you."

"Just how are you capable of doing this?" Adam asked in as firm a voice as he could clearly muster, his eye-hiding mask doing little to keep the curiosity and worry out of the rest of his facial features.

"That's for me to know only, I'm afraid," she calmly replied.

"…And? What of you? What could you possibly want me to do for you?" Adam then asked as he schooled his expression into something more stern.

"Simple. Grimm, after all, are hardly the most inconspicuous of beings. I will need someone to guide them within the kingdom when the next attack is launched. And as you can tell, I stand out a fair bit, even by the standards of this colorful world," she explained.

And oh what a lie she was telling.

As the 'Mind,' controlling the Grimm was hardly much of a challenge. While controlling _all_ of the Grimm in the world would be impossible until the Trial begins, that still wouldn't pose much of a problem. However, no doubt the 'Power' and its Apostle and whatever allies they may be making right now will be preparing for such a time.

With the Grimm at her beck and call, she would definitely have the numbers advantage, no matter how well the opposing forces prepared… but Salem wasn't interested in having a potential 'battle' on hand. No, she wanted nothing short of an absolute _massacre_ , to see her beloved Grimm, her only true family now, crushed beneath their feet all of wretched humanity.

The true purpose she had in mind for making this deal with Adam was to do the same thing she'd done with Cinder, who was now all but useless to her: to serve as a distraction, to attack her foes from within and throw them into disarray. All so that the Grimm that would be attacking from outside the kingdoms would be able to effortlessly trample all that is in their way.

Alas, that is why she did somewhat need this man. While she could control a number of the Grimm into breaching the kingdom walls in one form or another, doing so in a decidedly subtle way would be impossible given their forms and lack of any real way to operate any kind of technology or vehicle.

This is where Adam comes in. For in spite of his bullheaded ways, he possessed the cunning to actually sneak in others and once he goes back to the White Fang with his new 'friends' in tow, he will soon once again have the resources to back him up.

And this was one thing that he seemed to be picking up on. "You want me to sneak some of the Grimm into the kingdom of Vale… so that you can then make them go wild."

"Only when you next launch your attack, of course," she said smoothly. "After all, surely you are already planning out a return trip, yes?"

Adam remained silent for a moment. "I will admit to that, yes. However, with how the recent attack went, I won't be able to garner much support anymore."

"I do believe that'll change once you show them your new 'friends.' Why, I imagine any others that wish to attack Vale would just be delighted to know they'd have such backup." Salem smiled a little as she saw the effect her words were having on the man, the gears in his head working a little more quickly now. "They'd all but leap at the chance for some payback, I imagine… especially since in just a few the Vytal Festival will be commencing."

With said event coming up, security was bound to be high, but only really around the coliseum where it would be taking place. Security elsewhere should be notably lighter. Furthermore, with so many people due to be present at the coliseum, there was really no other time where they'd be able to truly strike so many at once.

And she could all but see these very same thoughts racing through Adam's mind as well. But nevertheless, he stubbornly resisted agreeing. Yet, that is. "This all sounds just a little too good to be true… just what is it that you really want?"

"As I said just a moment ago, you and I both want Vale to fall. Our reasons may differ, but I assure you they do not clash in any way." Salem allowed herself an inward laugh. Adam and many within the White Fang desired humanity's end. So did she. It just so happens that Adam's oh so precious 'Faunuskind' happen to be counted as a part of it.

Again, she could only imagine how he'd react to the truth of it all. But she held back from telling him. As it is, it's enough to just have him do just a little bit of the dirty work for her.

In any case, she wasn't lying – their end goals really were the same. She just wasn't going to bother telling something a little relevant to his precious cause is all.

"Now, stop stalling," she all but commanded of him. With just another thought, the smaller Nevermores flew down from the second floor and perched themselves on her shoulders. She gently rubbed a finger against one of their heads and had one hop from her shoulder to Adam's. "Do we have a deal?"

Adam's hidden eyes were locked on fiercely to the Nevermore atop his right shoulder, the crow-based Grimm peering back at him without even the slightest hint of aggression, tilting its head just a little to the side as it continued to gaze at him in interest.

The stubborn man eventually grunted. "Very well then. You have yourself a deal," he said, allowing himself a small yet sinister smirk. No doubt the benefits of having Grimm on his side outweighed any immediate drawbacks he'd been thinking of.

Salem herself now couldn't stop from smirking as well. _"Good."_

* * *

From the floor above, Qrow watched the talk between Adam Taurus and Salem play out. As they both came to an agreement, the veteran huntsman nearly gulped.

But still being in his crow form, hiding amongst the shadows as to remain undetected, gulping was an action he was currently incapable of. Something he was quite thankful for as his gulps were hardly the quietest of things.

That aside, he was internally sweating bullets.

Salem was going to be offering up some Grimm to Adam – by extension, the White Fang, really – to sneak directly into the heart of Vale, where casualties truly would be unavoidable if they made it in. This newfound knowledge combined with what Oz had told him painted a terrifying picture, one that he was certain Adam Taurus wasn't even aware of at the moment.

Given the mentioning of the Vytal Festival, an event that was scheduled to take place around the exact same time this 'Trial' was to start, Qrow was more than certain that what Salem was planning was a two-fold assault, one from outside all of the kingdoms and one from within Vale itself. Hell, depending on how many Grimm she forked over to Adam and what sort of resources the Bull-type Faunus could muster, they might even be able to sneak some Grimm into the other kingdoms as well. And with the public at large being so focused on the upcoming festival even in light of the recent Breach, by the time they knew what was going on, it'd be far too late.

It'd be an absolute bloodbath, even with whatever preparations Oz and the others were making.

Forget roughing up the Queen. He had to get out of here and get somewhere safe and let Oz know about this _now_.

He hopped away from the ledge overlooking Salem and Adam, who now seemed to be discussing some minor details, and immediately headed for one of the small windows.

But he slowed upon seeing a Nevermore twice the size of his currently transformed self simply sitting there upon the window seal.

It was eyeing him.

Inwardly swearing, Qrow kept from physically reacting to its blank gaze and hopped up next to it in as natural a fashion as possible.

The damned Grimm still kept on staring, but its gaze remained emotionless. If Qrow had to guess, it's probably because it could sense he wasn't a Grimm like itself, yet with his crow form looking so similar to any other Nevermore, it was being thrown off or something.

This was merely conjecture on his part and the huntsman sure hoped he was right.

Letting out a brief caw in an attempt to make himself seem more like an actual crow, the transformed huntsman then took flight, wasting no time in putting on speed as he flapped away.

Quickly putting several meters between him and the window and only getting further away by the second, he inwardly sighed from relief. Looks like he might make it out of here without iss-.

A loud series of caws from an even larger Nevermore somewhere above him interrupted his thoughts. That it was now divebombing towards him with a dangerous look in its red eyes was yet another thing that further derailed his current train of thought.

Dodging the Nevermore by performing a barrel-roll in mid-flight, Qrow desperately swerved downwards before soaring back up, far higher than ever before.

Off in the distance, he saw with his crow eyes a small flock of Nevermores squawking in his direction, an almost hungry look in their eyes. Each of the bird-based Grimm in this flock were easily thrice his current size… and these were the smallest ones he was talking about here.

God damn it, of all the times Grimm decided to express some form of hunger, it just had to be now, didn't it?

He hates his semblance.

* * *

With a heavy sigh of both frustration and fatigue, Emerald disembarked from the final bullhead dropping the students back off at Beacon. Slouching, she began to slowly make her way back to the dorms.

She'd gone into town earlier and had easily slipped away from the other students and officials to go see if she could hunt down either in person or on the phone any remaining members of the White Fang.

While Adam had brought a small platoon of grunts into Vale with him, that didn't mean the White Fang didn't have a presence here in the city beforehand in some respect. The reason why they didn't join in during the Breach is because they were more suited for reconnaissance and resource-maintenance as opposed to fighting. These guys didn't even have their auras unlocked.

Emerald had figured if she could find them, she could calmly 'persuade' one or two of them into telling her where Adam may be or if he was already making new plans. At the very least, maybe even provide her a way to contact him and ensnare him with her semblance.

That had been her plan. Or rather, that had been her hope.

And it had been crushed unceremoniously earlier.

Throughout the hours she'd spent in Vale, she'd managed to locate one White Fang punk and through her own way with words and liberal usage of her semblance, she got directed from one person to another, with each one seeming to know just as much as the one before.

Which was to say, absolutely nothing.

It hadn't been until near the end of her trek that one of the White Fang guys, some alligator based Faunus from what she recalled, had been able to provide her with some actual intel, but it immediately proved moot.

Apparently, following the disastrous attempt to go after the council members during the Breach, Adam had put in a call for pick-up and had then been taken to some small safehouse that reside well outside the city. However, since then the bullheaded bastard had yet to contact anyone else from the organization and when one of their other members – some random flunky that Emerald couldn't recall the name of – had gone to the safehouse late last night, Adam had been nowhere to be seen. The flunky had even waited until this morning for his possible return, but to no avail.

"That ungrateful shithead," Emerald couldn't help but mutter under her breath. Sure, she knew they had initially coerced him and his little sect of the White Fang into helping, but not too long after that, the bull type Faunus had been all too eager to see Vale fall. That he'd hijacked Cinder's Breach plan was proof of that desire. And now with the plan having fallen apart in ways they still didn't know, the punk was nowhere to be seen.

How typical, really.

Thus, all Emerald knew she could report to Cinder in just several more minutes was that Adam was now likely somewhere well outside the city and possibly even well outside the kingdom. The only possible thing that could then be implied by the facts of this is that maybe the man had left the White Fang, given he'd yet to contact them again since then. And that was one possibility that was _extremely_ unlikely.

Maybe he went to go unjustly angst deep in a forest. Seemed like something he'd do, if Emerald was being honest with herself. If so, maybe he'd just stay out there and die. Would certainly be great considering how much of an asshole he is, even when ignoring the whole 'terrorist organization' part.

In any case now, she was tired, she was frustrated and she planned on heading to bed as soon as she told Cinder this. And hopefully tomorrow or sometime later this week, Cinder will be able to come up with something else since tracking Adam will likely be outright impossible, if not simply a huge timewaster.

Continuing her slow trek back to the dorm in silence, Emerald only now realized that she was really the only one in the hallway right now. Wow, looks like she'd been much more tired than she'd thought if even all of the other fatigued students could move fast enough to make it back to their rooms before her.

Oh well, no big whoop. She'll get back to the room when she does.

Nonetheless, she picked up the pace just a little bit.

Continuing to walk in silence, her eyes unconsciously narrowed as she realized yet another thing.

"It's way too quiet…" Even with how exhausted all of the students were, there's no way they'd all remain this quiet. There was some teams that were always bound to be a little rowdy and yet there was not a single other sound being emitted here.

The teal haired girl could only stare blankly as chills slowly began to race up her spine.

Something was starting to feel off here.

Her fatigue letting up slightly in the wake of such an oddity, Emerald began her walk again, but much more alert this time.

Perhaps she'd become too alert too suddenly… for several seconds later, she started hearing a second set of footsteps directly behind her.

She stopped. The footsteps stopped too.

She spun around, arm moving to strike whoever it was right in the side of the neck – only for there to be nothing there. Undeterred, she pivoted again so that she faced forward once more.

Nothing was there.

Deliberately, she took a few steps forward. Another set of footsteps echoed right behind her.

The chills from a minute ago felt much more noticeable this time to her as she looked to the walls out of the corner of her eyes, hoping to see a shadow of anything behind here. And there was none.

Emerald started to walk in earnest, moving much more quickly than she had been up until now. She was only hearing her own footsteps now.

Then she blinked and when her eyes opened again, the entire hallway was almost completely black. Shocked, she ended up taking a few steps back, blinking again in the process. The hallway was back to normal, the lights alongside the walls glowing as bright as they normally did.

For a few crazy seconds, the teal haired girl thought that somehow she must have used her own semblance on herself. It was the only thing coming to mind that could even remotely explain what was going on right now. But even such a thought, obviously absurd, couldn't explain whatever had happened just now.

Especially since it didn't seem like it was over just yet.

On pure instinct, she checked behind her one final time – and saw that at the end of the hallway she'd come from, it was nothing but blackness. And it was slowly spreading towards her.

Eyes widening, Emerald broke into a run. Confronted with something that clearly wasn't natural, it was really all she could even think to do, so much so that the idea of whipping out her scroll to contact either Mercury or Cinder didn't occur to her.

Running faster and faster, she could literally _hear_ the blackness catching up with her, gradually picking up speed as well. The chills grew stronger – much, much stronger – as she saw out of the corner of her eyes the lights upon the walls ahead of her becoming dim, the walls themselves beside her being covered in pitch darkness as it spread after her.

Against her own will, she looked back. And the blackness looked directly back at her.

There, there in the center of the spreading blackness were a pair of red glows that could only be eyes. They pierced her very being, looking through her own soul, always remaining a constant ten feet away from her no matter how fast she ran or how much the blackness spread.

It was all Emerald could do to keep from screaming.

Then she ended up smacking into a wall with a loud thud. So distracted had she been by looking into those red eyes, she'd neglected to realize that she was much closer to the end of the hallway than she'd originally thought.

A level of panic that she'd never felt before seized her, delaying her recovery time so that the most she was able to do was turn around to face whatever was coming towards her.

The hallway ends in a split path, meaning she could either run to the left or right in order to reach all of the other rooms on this floor. But alas, she no longer had the time for that. Nor were she capable of realizing this fact.

All but petrified now, she stared into those red eyes within the blackness as it quickly neared her. The monstrosity, for surely that is what it had to be, roared, not physically, but directly into her own mind. It was a sound unlike anything she'd ever heard before in her life. It was deep, distorted, unearthly.

It was calling her name accusingly and the mere fact that it knew her name at all nearly made her wet herself from fear.

It was about to slam right up against her. With her back against the wall and the distance so little between them, dodging was impossible.

Her life was forfeit.

Letting out a silent scream, Emerald threw up her arms in a vain attempt to shield herself and closed her eyes just as the blackness was less than two feet away from her.

She braced herself for the horrific impact to come… but seconds pass by and nothing came.

The sudden feeling of dread that had prompted her to flee upon first seeing the blackness now slowly began to ebb away, much to her own confusion. And so just as slowly, Emerald opened her eyes.

Nothing was there.

No blackness, no red eyes, just absolutely nothing save for the hallway she'd just ran for her life down. The lights had been restored and if she listened very closely, she could make out some idle chatter from within the rooms nearest to her.

Letting out a deep breath she'd been holding, Emerald lowered her arms at a snail's pace, only marginally aware of how sweat-drenched she'd so quickly become from fear.

That had definitely not been some self-inflicted trick of the mind. She definitely never could've come up with such a thing. It'd felt real, far too real.

And while she was no longer seemingly in any danger, the mere fact that whatever that thing had been existed was perhaps the most terrifying thing yet.

With this in mind, Emerald wasn't feeling too keen on doing much of anything anymore, if it meant another encounter with that… that _thing_.

All manner of fatigue gone as she was still hopped up on adrenaline, the teal haired girl hurried back to her room.

Looks like she suddenly had a lot more to report than before.

* * *

Letting out a deep breath, Mercury could now consider himself to be fully settled down now. Or at least he was close enough, which still counted to him.

Following his mad dash away from that room, he'd come to a stop outside the dorms, resting ever so briefly near the pathway leading to Beacon's main avenue. This rest was meant more to help him sort out his own thoughts rather than to physically rest up.

And he was grateful that he'd done so. For now he could think much more clearly.

Yeah, in hindsight, perhaps running away like that had been a bit much. Had he seen something definitely odd? Hell yeah, he sure did. No denying that. But despite whatever feelings the odd sight had instilled in him, there was no real way of knowing just like that if it was connected to what had happened to Roman.

His gut may be telling him otherwise right now, but given the situation, he, Emerald and most importantly Cinder had to rely on concrete evidence rather than just gut feelings.

Now if only his heart would listen to his mind, then maybe he can fully settle down.

"Damn…" he muttered as he stood to his full height. He let out a massive sigh as he looked up into the now night sky.

Running a hand through his messy grey hair, he continued to sort out his feelings from his rational thought process and tried to figure out just what in the hell he should tell Cinder once he returns.

And on that note, he couldn't help but feel a little frustrated again. It seemed to him like there honestly wasn't that much to really report. Well, technically there was, but how much of it will actually help them start planning ahead again was heavily debatable.

He hung his head in shame. While espionage and stealth and other more subtle skills were trademarks of assassins, his shitty dad had only really trained him in the more physical aspect of the assassin trade, which he'd put to good use initially by killing the old bastard. Sure, he'd picked up some stuff during his time thus far with Cinder, but the young man couldn't help but feel someone more trained in this sort of thing would've done a better job at listening in on Jaune Arc's conversation with Ruby Rose.

So caught up in his thoughts at the moment, it took longer than it should for Mercury, head still hanging down, to finally realize something out of the blue.

And when he finally noticed it, his entire body seemed to just lock up as the sense of dread from minutes ago struck him in full.

There on the ground were two shadows.

One, of course, was his own.

The other one, in a vaguely humanoid shape, most certainly wasn't.

For all of a millisecond, Mercury's mind tried to rationalize what his eyes were locked onto. His mind tried to soothe his heart by saying that it was merely just a trick of one of the light poles that could be found throughout the area. Or that it was merely just a trick of his own eyes, brought on by being fatigued from mental stress.

But when the second shadow suddenly began to morph into something else and literally _rise up from the fucking ground_ , Mercury's mind fell silent as the sense of dread that had embedded itself in him out of nowhere grew in intensity.

The shadow rose and stretched in virtually all directions – to Mercury's sides as well as upwards, easily surpassing ten feet and still going.

When the shadow – no, more like the blackness – reached the towering height of twenty feet, Mercury finally managed to fight through the overwhelmingly strong sense of panic that had overtaken and moved.

Perhaps as a result of all the brutal years of training he had to endure thanks to his deceased old man, his first instinct was surprisingly not to run – though it certainly was an appealing option – but rather to attack, out of a desire to potentially injure whatever it was before him so that he could put himself just a bit more at ease.

But as his kick went through the blackness without encountering any kind of resistance even though he could _feel_ that the black fog before him could simply lock his leg in place, he quickly disabused himself of this stupid notion of his.

Before his failed kick could fully be finished, he awkwardly skipped away from the blackness with his free leg and immediately broke into a run.

The blackness immediately followed.

Running for the dorms, Mercury felt the strong desire to make some noise, to rouse the students and maybe even the faculty from whatever they were doing in order to confront this thing, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out.

The sense of dread within him was so damned strong that it was interfering with his very actions, it would seem.

But not his ability to run, evidently. So he put on a burst of speed as the dorms came into view, the entrance maybe a few dozen yards away.

He could see some of the lights on in the rooms facing this side. With the blackness behind him being around twenty feet in height and width, he actually prayed that the occupants would see it.

But as if realizing this, the blackness promptly shrunk down to a much smaller size, little more than twice Mercury's own height before it seeped into the floor and out of sight.

And then, just as quickly as it had disappeared from Mercury's periphery, the blackness reappeared directly in front of him.

Little more than mere inches away from him, Mercury could only futilely try to skid to a stop. And as he'd feared, it was far too late for that.

The blackness lunged forth, smashing directly into him, its non-corporeal form somehow able to genuinely slam against him like a small tidal wave.

His vision went pitch black as he was engulfed in the blackness and his entire body was overcome by a supernatural cold that left him immediately shivering. As he was knocked to the floor, still enveloped by this thing, he could only let out a silent cry of pain as the blackness surged across the ground at high speeds, all but scrapping his back against said ground painfully.

When it finally 'let go' of him, Mercury went rolling through several thick bushes.

Terror filled him as he came to a stop.

Within the three seconds it had dragged him – sure felt a lot longer than that – the black fog had moved him well away from the dorms and off the main avenue that most students liked to occupy during their free time. In fact, whatever this thing was had dragged him more than a dozen meters away from the main avenue and well away from the buildings that made up Beacon.

To put it another way, he was now in an area where no one could possibly be expected to see or hear him. Where there was no light source…

Realizing his predicament had gotten much worse, Mercury could only remain partially crouched now as he looked out for any sign of the blackness, which had mysteriously vanished after letting him go.

Nothing save for the grass around him was in sight. Off in the distance was Beacon Academy, a place that he'd never thought he'd desperately want to be at right the fuck now.

Then, just out of the corner of his eye, something flickered.

Were this any other occasion, he'd have paid it no mind. He might have even laughed it off as he did most things. But not right now. Possibly not any more either, should he survive this.

But before he could turn to look to his right, something else appeared to move to his left just as he heard the grass being disturbed somewhere ahead of him. And whatever had done that just now sure hadn't been some random small animal.

To say that he now felt trapped would be an understatement. It felt more like the world as he knew it had now shrunk down to little more than several feet all around him as he kept on swearing to himself that he was now seeing some spots of grass that were pitch black.

But it was too hard for him to tell; it was a dark night and his eyes had yet to adjust. For all he knew, he could easily be alone right now…

..But the possibility that he _wasn't_ alone was far too high for his liking right now, especially when it felt like multiple pairs of eyes were now locked onto him.

Against his better judgement and unable to think of anything else to do, Mercury could only freeze completely, hoping that it would lose interest if he remained still long enough.

As he slowly began to regain his mental faculties, he could only chide himself harshly for trying to apply a logic used by civilians to deal with some predators, but it was the only thing that had come to mind just now.

So as he did his best to emulate a statue, he could only hope that if nothing else, this blackness abided by some kind of understandable logic too.

Or else he was fucked.

* * *

Back near the dorms, Tenebrous partially manifested.

It had to say, it was actually rather surprised by how effective its tactics had been thus far. When Jaune had told it of some 'horror tropes,' the god hadn't been particularly certain as to how well it could properly emulate such things. Looking back immediately on its performance thus far, it felt that a number of things could have been performed better.

That being said, it would seem it had certainly been effective – Emerald was now stalking the halls of the dorm at a haphazard pace, sometimes fast, sometimes slow as she tried to make her way back to her room, too rattled to realize she was going the long way around. As for the one known as Mercury, the young man was currently being kept back by the small part of itself that it had left in the field after dragging him away from the academy.

Tenebrous couldn't be certain just how long exactly it would be that Mercury could be kept at bay, but from it had discerned of the young man prior to coming back here, it figured it would certainly be a while.

Definitely long enough for it to now enact one final nightmarish sequence on the last person of the group as part of Jaune's suggested scare tactics.

As it disappeared into the shadows all around it as if it were its own body – technically, it was – Tenebrous pondered to itself just how exactly the recovering Cinder Fall would react to what was about to come.

Time to find out.

* * *

 **Heh heh, in all honesty, I actually hadn't planned the scare tactic thing initially. That's literally just how things turned out. But it still works for what I had in mind and it sure felt fun to write, so I hope it'll be just as fun for you guys to read!**

 **If you do like it, then maybe it'll be a sign for me to try my hand at a proper horror fic in the distant future? Heh, only time will really tell though.**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	34. Chapter 34

And so my job hunting continues! At least I have an interview coming up very soon, so hopefully that'll turn out well – I really do need to get out of my current job, that's for sure. Wish me luck!

Ah, on a note related to fanfics, just what do you guys think I should do next? As things currently stand, I have three ideas in mind as I am already starting to plan out my next fic. I have a Highschool of the Dead fic in mind, another RWBY fic that is more Jaune-centric than this one is, and a possible (heavy emphasis on POSSIBLE) Infinite Stratos fic with some elements of the Silverio verse that I have mentioned in a previous AN or two. Well, the last idea is a very tentative one though – in all honesty, a part of me really wants to write a fic with some Silverio elements in it, but nothing else is coming to mind beyond Infinite Stratos right now for some reason. That and I also would love to write the HOTD idea I've had in mind for a while now.

Let me know, please!

Now with that said, onto the chapter!

Chapter 34

Letting out a deep grunt that one would never have expected from her, Cinder's eyes switched back and forth a few times between the door and her scroll.

It's been quite some time since Mercury and Emerald had set out to do their respective tasks and they should've already been back by now. At the very least, they should be on their way here as she thinks of it.

Alas, they were roughly fifteen minutes overdue and the few messages she'd sent to them via scroll had gone not only unanswered, but apparently unread if her scroll's notification function was working properly.

With some crutches that she'd obtained by calling the staff a few hours ago, she raised herself out of her bed with them and took a moment to steady herself before moving towards the window, which overlooked one of the few pathways that led from the dorms to the bullhead landing pads and vice versa.

Neither of her two subordinates were in sight.

Really now, it seemed like just about everything nowadays was trying to irritate her one way or another. She'd been expecting Mercury and Emerald to be exceptions to this apparently new norm, but it would seem she may have overestimated them.

How… disappointing, if she was being honest with herself. Mistakes were an all too human thing. Literally everyone made mistakes at various points in their lives. She herself was no exception and neither were her subordinates, but never when it had come to their 'work.' That this situation now was proving to be the once in a blue moon occasion in this regard was rankling her in ways she never would've thought possible.

With a huff of both mounting frustration and effort, Cinder used her crutches to turn around and make an angry beeline for the bathroom.

Since it was now clear that those two will likely be keeping her waiting for an indefinite amount of time longer, she figured she might as well take a bath. Having been resting in bed practically all day in a fairly warm room had caused her to become quite sweaty. One would think that her ability to produce and manipulate flame would have granted her a passive resistance of sorts to this kind of thing, but she still very much human in spite of the image she tried to portray.

So with that said to herself, Cinder closed and locked the door behind her as she entered the bathroom and sat herself upon the closed toilet.

With the crutches being placed against the wall directly to her right, she leaned forward and grabbed the nob to fill the bathtub with cool water. As it began to fill, she delicately stripped down, a process that took a while due to her legs not moving when she futilely commanded them to.

Still, she managed the task quickly enough and with one final use of her crutches, she all but slowly hefted herself into the tub just as it filled to an acceptable level.

Shutting off the cold water, Cinder let out a sigh as she then leaned back in order to rest her head against the tub wall for now, her head just inches above the water's surface.

Closing her eyes, she once more ran a mental checklist as her body cooled down, her sweat being washed away.

Just what else was there that could – should – be done?

So far, she'd ordered Mercury to go follow Jaune Arc and see what could be found out about that blond nuisance whilst Emerald was to locate Adam and report back in order for her to plan out how best to deal with that bullheaded bastard. So just what else should be done then? Common sense would dictate calling Salem and asking her for whatever resources she could spare so that she may try and continue her plan in some other way… but her mentor wasn't exactly one to forgive failure and while the enigmatic woman was surprisingly kind to her, Cinder didn't wish to push the limit.

In any case, finding and killing the Fall Maiden still remained her top priority, not only in order to fully solidify her power, but also to hopefully speed up her recovery; the power of a maiden can be capable of many things, after all, so the possibility of it increasing her recovery rate isn't entirely implausible. The sooner she could heal, the better. Assuming, of course, obtaining the rest of the maiden's power could bring about such a thing.

Letting out yet another sigh as her thoughts began to slowly run rampant, Cinder sunk into the water a bit more, running her hands through her hair as she then closed her eyes.

Just as she did so, however, something odd began to occur.

The water was cool. She'd made sure of that. But it was suddenly beginning to get _colder_.

Opening her eyes, they then widened in shock as the lights of the bathroom began to flicker and dim, as if something was sucking them dry of their energy. All the while, the water grew colder still.

And started turning black just as the lights began to fade completely.

Cinder wasn't a woman to panic easily. Even when Adam had hijacked the train phase of her plan, she hadn't quite actually panicked. Yet as the darkness crept into the bathroom, a wave of dread hit her with the force of a tsunami, causing her heartrate to quicken dangerously as her pupils dilated and her breath became labored.

But even as genuine panic began to strike her, she still attempted to move, years of self-taught training and discipline from Salem kicking into gear to make her all but pull herself up and out of the bath with her arms, her flame powers subtly activated as well in order to counter the growing deathly cold of the water.

It was admirable, but ultimately futile and too late.

For just as she'd been about to essentially throw herself out of the tub, she felt something latch onto her and rein her back in with ease, eliciting a startled gasp from her as she was pulled completely under.

 _Now_ the panic began to hit her and hit her strongly as the water grew even colder and became so pitch black that she could no longer see the surface. Said surface should have only been mere inches away from her, yet as she threw her arms upwards in an attempt to get free, they found nothing.

She wriggled with all the strength she could muster whilst holding her remaining breath as much as possible. It only seemed as if she was being dragged down even deeper, as impossible as that seemed, for she could feel that same unknown tugging pulling her deeper down, the faint sensation of her lustrous black hair swaying against her face as this happened.

Seeing that physically struggling was proving completely ineffective, her panic subsided just enough for her to try the partial maiden power she'd obtained all that time ago. For the briefest of moments, her body was enveloped in intense flames, so intense that they could easily melt _steel._

But the flames did absolutely nothing against the cold that persisted against her, seeping down into the very depths of soul, it felt like. Her flames couldn't even illuminate the area around her, leaving trapped in pitch blackness still.

Just what was going on? How was this happening?! Who or what was responsible for this?! These were but three questions that the black-haired woman was able to think of even in the midst of her frantic state. No answers were forthcoming.

A silent scream started to well up within her, starting in her diaphragm and working its way up. Holding her breath was already starting to become impossible and the supernatural cold began to intensify and coalesce within her heart whilst a pressure grew upon her.

This was all happening far too suddenly, too quickly, and too intensely for her mind to fully keep up with. Never before had she ever been exposed to such things in so rapid a fashion or on such a scale.

Not to mention… the memories this situation was bringing up.

Blinking in spite of herself, all that she could physically see still was pure blackness that she doubted even Faunus could see through.

But within her mind… she saw her past.

She saw her young self holding back tears as they buried her mother. She saw her young self being bullied by her older stepsisters. She saw her young self trying in vain to please her father, who'd grown distant since her mother's death all while her stepmother cruelly looked on as she failed to so much as get an acknowledgement from her father. She saw herself as a young teen being forced to serve as a slave in all but name to her older stepsisters, who'd only gotten haughtier and crueler over time. She saw her father die from an all too convenient 'heart attack,' leaving behind his considerable fortune and estate for his second wife, who'd ensured his will had been changed during the years prior so that Cinder wouldn't receive so much as one lien.

But more importantly, she saw her younger self being beaten down, verbally and emotionally and sometimes even physically, by those three wicked bitches following her father's death. And how she'd been made to practically care for them as if she were some housekeeper as her stepmother and stepsisters trampled upon her fortune in pursuit of a lavish lifestyle.

It had been around her mid-teens when she'd finally ran away from that dark and cruel place, where those three had hid their true personalities from others behind masks that were as fragile as glass slippers. It had been not long thereafter, when she'd aimlessly ran far to the west, where'd she nearly died to a massive group of Grimm that had naturally noticed her presence in their land… only to be saved and taken in by the woman she now called her master: Salem.

She recalled how the woman had approached her, having stepped forth from in between the Grimm as they made a path for her, kneeling all the while. The twisted and intrigued smile that the older woman had sported as she looked upon her trembling form back then, followed by honeyed words that promised power, power great enough to never be hurt ever again, power great enough to demand fear…

As quickly as her life had flashed before her very eyes, it came to an end as Cinder realized she was crying, oddly hyperaware of her tears as they floated before her and soon off into the pitch blackness.

Fully losing the ability to hold her breath, she let out a gasp filled with pain, pain from both her present actions and from her memories and as soon as this occurred, she felt the blackness around her shift as if it were a primal force and it entered her.

This time, when she screamed out in response, it wasn't soundless.

And as if in response to this now deafening scream of hers, the blackness shifted once more and began to pull her up with such force that it felt as if she'd break in two from it.

For what had to be nearly half a minute, Cinder ascended, not once feeling as if she'd soon be breaching the surface of the water… assuming she was still even in the tub somehow.

Her whole body came to a sudden and immediate halt then and there as ominous red glows the size of her fists appeared before her.

Another scream began to well up within her as those red glows – eyes, that's what her mind was telling her right now – pierced through her very being, all of the memories she'd just reexperienced once more flashing through her mind as these red glows seemed to watch them.

Only now did she know for certain that she was dealing with something truly unearthly as tidal waves of fear, dread, and resignation struck her simultaneously.

Her memories ceasing to play and fading into the back of her mind, the red eyes before her shifted ever so slightly. As the only sources of any real lighting in this pitch darkness, Cinder couldn't bring herself to look away no matter how she was trying to make herself do so. Because of this, all she could do was let out gasps of mounting horror, her lungs somehow getting air in this moment.

But her labored gasps ceased momentarily when something even more unexpected than any of this occurred.

Whatever she was confronting here _spoke._

 _Cinder Fall…_

The way this… this thing said her name nearly robbed her of life. It was as if it was actually tasting her very name.

 _Fall… Such an appropriate surname you've since taken on. Even one such as I can appreciate just how fitting it is._

The voice, speaking directly into her mind, then paused. The blackness all around began to move and slither audibly, aggressively.

 _That said, you've been quite the nuisance, Cinder, in more ways than one. Rather impressive in a way… for a mere 'pawn' of that person. But you've long since ceased to be useful to her in any way and your continued involvement has been nothing more than a growing annoyance to me._

The audible movement of the darkness all around her continued and sped up. A clearly supernatural power now began to build up, assaulting her very senses relentlessly, to the point where it felt as if her very mind was now beginning to be torn apart by the pressure said welling power was unleashing.

A silent gasp escaped her and her eyes widened so much that the veins in said eyes could be clearly seen.

This entity, whatever it was… there was no way she could ever go up against such a thing. Even she wasn't so injured… even if she had all of the Fall Maiden's power, she'd never be able to even _scratch_ this thing.

No… it was more than just that…

This thing… it exceeded even the power of all the maidens _combined_.

As this realization struck her, so too did the entity's voice, louder than before and far more booming, more intense than anything she'd experienced thus far.

 _ **Now then… CONSIDER THIS YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR INTERFERING.**_

Impossibly so, the blackness all around her now surged visibly and loudly. She could see and feel it closing in on her at literally lightning speeds with only one intention.

And that would be to crush her completely.

For the first time ever since she'd been such a young and beaten down child, Cinder closed her eyes and huddled up into a ball, her arms futilely raised to protect herself.

The last thing she saw before doing this was that thing's red eyes, still glaring at her accusingly as the darkness all around her roared her way.

And an instant later, the blackness struck her.

* * *

Qrow let out a sound that somewhere in between a sigh of relief and a groan of complete fatigue and frustration.

That had been way too damn close.

"God damned semblance…" he muttered. Some days, his semblance was actually pretty helpful and then other days, it felt like some higher power was going out of its way to dick with him.

His escape from that land hadn't been an easy one, not one bit. Following the flock of Nevermores suddenly getting a case of the munchies, he'd remained in crow form and had flown about as quickly and as haphazardly as he could to avoid becoming Grimm dinner. The small trail of blood running down the side of his left arm was proof enough of just how close a call he'd had, for one particular Nevermore had managed to blindside in mid-flight and pierced his arm with its absurdly sharp beak.

Thankfully, he'd been able to keep from falling at the time and had just kept on flying higher in order to lose them. They'd followed him for a while, but roughly ten minutes later, the Nevermores had given up, evidently having decided that he wasn't worth the effort anymore.

He sure wasn't going to complain about that… though he did wish they'd have been far less persistent in the first place. Hell, he wished they hadn't suddenly decided to try eating for once in their existences.

Well, at least he was out of there and back in land that was far more normal in appearance, with a visible moon hanging in the dark sky whilst he was surrounded by healthy looking trees and grass as opposed to the warped and outright hellish place that Salem's castle was set up in.

Leaning against a tree and sliding down it, Qrow took a moment to further recover his breath, an action that he then interrupted with a quick drink from his flask.

Ah, how that made him so much better.

"Okay… no more stalling though," he then said aloud to himself.

He had to report to Oz, after all. About Adam Taurus meeting with Salem and the little plan they were cooking up.

Whipping out his scroll with his injured arm, which honestly wasn't that injured despite the blood, he immediately began to punch in Oz's number.

As it began to ring, he kept an eye out for anything out of the blue. Just because he was out of Salem's territory didn't meant he was completely safe – it just meant that he was less likely to be attacked.

Mercifully, it didn't take his longtime friend to answer. "That was fast, Qrow," Ozpin said over the line. "Let's cut right to it – how did things go?"

"In all honesty, Oz? Not all that well," Qrow said grimly. "Didn't have a chance to try blindsiding her for one thing… and for another, well, she's got a new pawn in play now. And the plan she and him cooked up is a bit of a doozy."

As he began to briefly explain what had happened, he could all but hear his old friend's grip tightening.

Yeah… looks like they all now had a lot more on their plate than before.

* * *

Adam had to admit – this had proved much more beneficial than he'd ever thought it would.

He'd be lying if he said that Salem's very presence didn't rub him the wrong way, but if she really had meant to do him harm, it'd have been pretty damn easy for her considering the Grimm were at her beck and call.

In any case, she was willing to provide him resources with which to achieve his vengeance and bring down the kingdoms for good, which is something she really quite wanted. So in this respect, their goals really did coincide.

With Grimm promised to back him up, it was now a matter of calling up as many Faunus operatives that were loyal to him still within the White Fang in order to begin preparations for the attacks he and Salem had just outlined. With the Grimm all but promised to obey him to some degree, garnering support and gathering up the necessary supplies shouldn't prove all that difficult once he shows them their new 'allies.'

Adam was then snapped from his slight reverie when a Beringel – probably the same one that had brought him to Salem's land – grunted, grabbing his attention.

Following his talk with Salem, she'd ordered a small group of Beringels to escort him safely out of the land and now he could see that he'd reached the land's edge, seeing before him a land that looked far more normal than where the Grimm apparently all resided with their master.

"Hmph…" He couldn't help but blink a few times under his mask, his mind trying to process just how the land Salem was in could so completely differ from the rest of the land… not to mention just how bizarre it is as he looked back and forth between the two lands, seeing the drastic changes between them. It was almost as if someone had gone and done a bad job of photoshopping two very different places together without even remotely trying to properly blend in the connecting edges.

Sure made for an interesting sight now that he had the time and focus to take it in.

The Beringel made another grunt and tapped him on his back with one of its large fingers.

Getting the message, Adam walked forward about a dozen steps so that he was now an acceptable distance away from the distorted land. Turning back around, he eyed the group of Beringels, specifically the one that had tapped him.

Holding its gaze, Adam subtly nodded on instinct. To his mild surprise, it returned the gesture before it turned and began its trek back, the other gorilla-based Grimm following its lead a split second later.

A chuckle escaped his lips as amusement welled up within him. How interesting it was to now know just a bit more about the Grimm. Growing up, he too had believed they were nothing more than beasts of darkness meant to slay humanity and Faunus alike, but after today, he could now see he was wrong; the Grimm not only were capable of understanding emotions and actions to an unknown extent, but they also obeyed a woman that at least looked somewhat human herself.

Interesting… perhaps after he's crushed Vale, he could spend some time learning more about the Grimm. He was now certain such knowledge could prove most useful in the future in bringing down the rest of humanity.

Who knows? Such knowledge might even be able to get them to stop going after Faunus at the very least and solely go after humans. That sure would be a great thing to see.

His mood now doing much better than it ever had before, Adam now began his own trek back to the safe house, scroll now in hand.

He began to thumb through the contacts saved on said device, already mapping out in his head who he should call and who he shouldn't. He also idly noted how much power his scroll had left.

He had a lot of calls to make, after all. Having it die on him from lack of power certainly would be inconvenient.

* * *

For the longest time, Cinder didn't dare move a single muscle, not even willing to take a proper breath.

It was only after what had to be several minutes that she finally brought it upon herself to uncurl herself and open her eyes….

To reveal that she was now back in the bath tub, the bathroom lights bright and showing no signs of flickering off anytime soon.

Cinder could only look all around the room blankly, an expression of complete uncomprehending shock on her face.

She'd been certain that the blackness had just crushed her, had literally felt it slam against her from all angles with the force of a hurricane. There was no way she should be alive right now.

Her body shivered at the thought of that… thing.

Was it still here, merely playing a cruel trick on her before crushing her for real? Or was it gone for now? Regardless of the answer, she shivered once more and not from the cold water that she was still in.

Slowly, she drained the water from the tub and began the process of drying herself off after lifting herself out of the bath in a most cautious fashion.

As she changed back into her clothes, it was with shaking hands that she gripped her crutches and began to make her way out of the bathroom, doing her best to not jump at her own shadow in the process.

And was it merely her reading too much into things or did said shadow look a little… darker somehow? Such a possibility wore on her already frayed nerves, her forced air of calm completely gone after having gone through whatever the hell that had just been.

Throwing open the door, Cinder used the crutches to quickly make her way back to her bed and tucked herself in. She did so nervously and with a growing sense of paranoia, not unlike how kids can be when they were afraid of something lurking in the dark.

Only she now knew that there really was something in the dark. Something powerful. Something terrifying.

Something that _is_ the dark and so much more.

Something that was very much aware of her past, it would seem… and aware of what she'd been up to.

Fighting back the temptation to throw the blankets over her entire body – something that she used to do as a kid in a vain attempt to keep her stepsisters from bullying her in her own room – Cinder looked all over the entire room, making sure that none of the shadows were looking out of the ordinary.

Not that there was anything she could do to stop that thing if it decided to make itself known once more.

Remembering its words, Cinder couldn't help but lie back in bed as if she was about to take a nap, now wondering if maybe, just maybe, it'd be best to not do anything to draw that thing's ire anytime soon.

And perhaps… it'd be in her best interests now to stop outright before things truly ended up FUBAR for her.

As if in response to this very thought, a shadow in the far corner of the room – directly by the damned door – seemed to pulsate for a second before it stopped.

For the next fifteen minutes, after which a haunted looking Emerald finally returned, Cinder didn't dare take her terrified eyes off that dark corner.

She could've sworn she saw two faint red glows within it, eyeing her the whole time.

* * *

Having taken the time to wander back to his room, Jaune waited in silence as he lied upon his bed for his friend to return.

With nothing to really do to pass the time, all he could do was hum a nameless tune… as well as turn his thoughts towards what was to come.

Holding up his hand, he looked at his own aura with his Aura Vision. The immaculate white that his aura was nearly blinded him and it took him a few quick blinks to adjust.

"Looks like it's still progressing…" he muttered to himself.

It seems like even with his friend now tending to the task he'd talked him into doing, his body was still undergoing the same procedure of sorts that his friend had been putting it through before, his aura highlighting the effect it was having within him, tearing and breaking yet repairing his entire body bit by bit in order to strengthen it.

Not for the first time, he wondered if this would really work – his aura was just too damn strong to be contained for much longer as more and more of his latent power leaked to the surface. If this kept up and his body wasn't able to adapt in time, then when he finally uses his semblance…

No. He had to stop thinking like that. To start worrying and doubting things now of all times wasn't going to do him or Tenebrous any good, what with the Trial so quickly approaching.

Even with Ruby Rose now determined to do what she can with her silver eyes and his sister's still un-awakened semblance still serving as a trump card, he couldn't afford to start wracking himself with worry over his own progress.

Still… he did have to wonder if what the ultimate outcome of this self-inflicted procedure would really make that much of a difference. Tenebrous says that it most certainly will, but after having long since been informed of Salem's own abilities, Jaune couldn't help but compare and contrast them both and question if it really would be enough.

Well, only one way to find out, he supposed. Self-doubt aside, he had no intention of simply moving aside and letting Salem have her way. And he highly doubted anyone else in the know would just let her do so too.

He was interrupted from his thoughts a moment later when the connection between him and Tenebrous informed him of his friend's return.

The quiet yet eerie slithering of Tenebrous' fog-like form was a help as well in this regard.

"How'd it go?" he asked as he immediately sat up.

 _I believe I could've performed the horror tropes you spoke of far better if I've had previous experience… nonetheless, I feel I was adequate._

Jaune allowed himself a small hopeful smile. "You think they'll give it up then?"

 _From what I observed afterwards just now, Cinder certainly seems to be considering stopping her activities outright. At the very least, she is now quite keen on laying low for a long time. The other girl appears ready to run and never come back whilst the boy seems to have just a marginal bit of fight left in him… but he's a follower at his core, much like the other one. Whatever the pawn plans next, they will follow._

At that, Jaune could only hum thoughtfully. While it wasn't quite a hundred percent guarantee, it seems like his last minute plan to scare those three straight had worked out well enough. While he wouldn't exactly be expecting them to give up crime and the like completely, if what Tenebrous just said was on the mark, then he could likely imagine them no longer interfering in the present situation anymore.

If nothing else, he could expect them to not directly bother him or his allies. Which would be enough for now, he supposed. So long as they remained out of contact with Salem.

And on that note…

"Think they'll contact Salem?" he asked.

Through their connection, Jaune could 'feel' Tenebrous perform his equivalent of a head shake.

 _Although it had been brief, I believe I'd made it clear that she was a mere pawn to Salem and now a useless one at that too. With how much fear I filled her with, she will be dwelling on my words for a long while now… lest she risk my return if she wishes to get involved again._

Jaune tried to picture things from Cinder's point of view; an unknown and incredibly powerful entity of darkness threatening to come for her if she interferes anymore… on top of being told bluntly just how useless she now is to her own master… yeah, when he tries to picture things that way, he could understand why his friend would say what he'd just said.

"Heh, I see. Great job. I just hope it'll be enough along with everything else in play though…" He couldn't quite keep the worry out of his voice.

… _You worry over your own potential._

"Somewhat, yeah." Jaune sighed as he once more raised his hand, observing his own aura. "I know you said it will definitely be enough, but still… can't really stop worrying over it. A handful of things could go wrong, you know?"

 _I'm well aware. However, your own progress is moving at a good pace. So long as you avoid using your semblance until your body is at a sufficient level, things should turn out fine. After all, Salem, as powerful as she is, has no direct counter against it and by extension you._

"Even then, I'm still just the one guy. As powerful as you say I'll be upon my 'ascension,' there's only so much I alone can accomplish," Jaune retorted quietly.

 _And that's why you're not alone. After all, you have me still… and now we have others. While I will admit overall success is still something of a longshot, they do not strike me as the type to ever back down. That determination will serve them well._

Jaune sighed, nodding numbly as he did so.

He turned his head to the side, eyeing the direction of the dorms. Through his Aura Vision, he could see the auras of all the students in all of their shining luminescence, representing to him the hope of the near-future. Then he turned to the faculty dorms that he currently resided in, looking on as Oobleck appeared to be seated at his desk, a book and pen in hand. In another room, Peter appeared to be combing his mustache whilst in a jolly mood. Glynda appears to have retired early for the night, yet she seemed to be resting with what he could only described as a determined peace.

These three along with the rest of the staff shined just as brightly as, if not even more so, the students, representing the power of the huntsmen, who stood in between humanity and the Grimm.

He looked off into the distance where Ozpin sat in his office while Amber was resting already in her room in the area below the tower, the two of them serving as the current pinnacle of the might that huntsmen and huntresses had to bare.

Taking all of this in, Jaune smiled solemnly, knowing that Salem would be seeking to crush these figurative pillars of strength with everything she had once the opportunity arose.

"I just hope it'll all be enough," he whispered.

From beside him, his friend's very being seemed to thrum, unable to argue the point.

One thing was certain, however.

They still had much more work to do before they were ready.

* * *

Salem giggled not unlike a schoolgirl, a sound and image that heavily contrasted with her obviously adult appearance and personality.

She surveyed the hand she'd used to shake Adam's own and sneered as the black veins only now corrected themselves to their original position.

The poor fool hadn't realized it, but when they'd shook to finalize their deal, she'd actually used a combination of her semblance and Grimm-controlling nature to add a little 'something' to the man.

For now, said 'something' won't harm him. In fact, it will help him rein in the Grimm she intends on sending him once he sets things up on his end. It will even give him a bit of a power boost when it was needed…

But in due time, be it of its own accord or if that rage-blinded idiot pushed his new limits too far, the 'something' she'd bequeathed him upon contact will consume him and turn him into yet another distraction meant to take things apart from within the kingdom.

Originally, this had been something she'd meant to do to Cinder all that time ago, but the young woman had put such thought into her own plans that Salem had opted to indulge her. Given how things had ultimately turned out, the 'Mind' couldn't help but ponder if perhaps she ought to have given Cinder that 'something' back then, but alas the girl had proven useful enough so there was little trouble.

In any case, what she'd done to Adam Taurus was merely nothing more than a little insurance of sorts, one meant to merely aid rather than serve as an actual game-changer. Still, given just how things will likely play out when it does fully kick in, Salem could only smile darkly.

As she began to walk back to her room to rest for the night, she allowed herself yet another giggle, eager to see just how surprised all of her former race will be once they see just what she had in store for them.

This Trial was going to be a delightful experience from start to finish.

* * *

 **Hope the Cinder scenes were up to par with your expectations, everyone! And that the ending scene with Salem will serve as a good prelude of what is to really come in due time, ha ha ha.**

 **It's my aim to get the Trial underway and start dropping the rest of the bombshells I have in store you for all fairly soon, maybe in around ten more chapters depending on how I write things in between now and then.**

 **Hope you will look forward to what else is up next! And that you will let me know which fic I should do next after this one is finished!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	35. Chapter 35

Saw Wonder Woman recently and I have to say that if this is the level of quality we can expect from DCEU films from now on, then we're in for some really great things! Not to say that I hated the previous films – I quite liked them a lot, Man of Steel in particular, but I will admit that they were not without their issues, especially the theatrical version of Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad. That said, I will keep from having high expectations until Justice League is out.

Also, Fate Grand Order to be released in English on June 25th! As someone who sadly can't read Japanese, this is the perfect opportunity for me to start playing it and experience all the joy/frustration that I see others experiencing with it. Having spoiled myself about the events of the game thus far, I can already tell I won't be looking forward to certain boss battles, ha ha ha.

Man, it would be nice to do a Nasuverse fic one day… alas, I lack in-depth knowledge of the more technical terms to risk such a thing. But maybe one day that'll change.

As it is, to **Mo Eazy** , firstly thanks for the review! Secondly, you're right. Normally I'd have gone and said this in a private message, but I feel that I should make it 'official' so to speak: following the conclusion of this fanfic, my next fic will be a Highschool of the Dead one! Heh, given how long it's been since I've written for it, I can't help but wonder how my writing now may impact what I want to do for it… only time will tell! In any case, I hope you, Mo Eazy, and others will look forward to it!

Now then, onto the chapter!

Chapter 35

Amber allowed herself a serious quirk of the eyebrows. Here she was, finally allowed to traverse the campus of Beacon at her leisure now that she'd been able to successfully argue with Ozpin and Ironwood about being able to stretch her legs.

Her first order of business had been to go and grab a late breakfast while the students still remained in their dorms to rest.

She'd been surprised when Jaune had approached her just after she'd gotten some food and she'd been utterly shocked to then learn of what the young man's 'friend' had been up to just last night.

As it is, she could only stare at him from across the table with her mouth slightly ajar, completely forgetting she'd just been chewing on something. It took a few seconds before she realized this and blushed for a second before finishing the bite.

She was somewhat thankful that her new friend here was blind, at least in the sense that he couldn't actually see what had happened there.

"Wow," she then said after swallowing and wiping her mouth with a napkin. "That's really… quite something."

The blond young man having described in almost explicit detail what Tenebrous had done to that power-thief and her two lackeys, the Fall Maiden could only feel once more a certain fear of the god, its capabilities being so great and terrifying even while in such a reduced state that for a couple of seconds, her warm and delicious meal failed to calm the chills she got.

That said, it was also funny as hell.

A not-so-small part of her had really been itching to pay that woman back for her ambush and for taking a portion of her maiden power, an action that had left her near-death and comatose. Amber considered herself to hardly be a vindictive person, but such a thing would naturally stir up some pretty negative emotions in just about anyone, especially after the painful and invading feeling that she'd been overwhelmed with when Cinder Fall had used that glove on her.

As such, to hear of the horror tropes that the god had enacted – at Jaune's behest, no less! – upon those three arrogant and darkly ambitious crooks was music to her ears, so much so that she had to keep for laughing a little as she took another bite out of her breakfast omelet.

She wasn't all that successful, however, chuckling as she ate.

But when the chuckling managed to stop, she smiled softly at the young man before her. "Thank you," she said simply, yet from the heart.

Another not-so-small part of her found some form of delight at the small blush of embarrassment that graced Jaune's cheeks. "W-Well, you're welcome. If you don't mind me saying, I hadn't really been intending to get revenge for you… but I'm glad you enjoyed it anyways."

Another little chuckle on her part, her mood already doing pretty damn good this morning. "Kind of hard not to enjoy it under the circumstances."

Jaune nodded in agreement as the blush slowly vanished. A thoughtful look appeared on his face now. "I just hope it'll deter them from getting involved anymore."

Seeing his expression, Amber too looked serious now. "How sure are you that they've learned their lesson?"

"Well, Tenebrous and I had a brief talk about last night. We both think that at the very least, we won't have to worry about them getting involved with the Trial directly. Which is good enough for us, I'd say. Still, it's something to think on until we see and know for sure how they'll react."

"But I think Ironwood will be keeping an eye on them for us in that respect, right?" Amber proposed.

James Ironwood, in spite of his current workload with preparing for the Trial, had taken to issuing the deployment of small drones to monitor Cinder Fall and her two lackeys from afar, but only when they'd left the dorms since bugging their room would've been too difficult given how paranoid and sharp those three must have been. Well, that and Ozpin, despite his own opinion on the criminals, had put his foot down at the general bugging the room.

'Student' privacy,' he'd said almost sardonically at the time. Really, what an odd man Ozpin could be at times. And to think she had yet to know him for that long.

"…Come to think of it, I'm surprised he's not already aware of your friend's little fright fest," Amber then commented. She'd bumped into the general and Ozpin earlier before even coming here for breakfast and the former hadn't so much as made a peep about anything like what Jaune had just told her.

"Well, the drones can't monitor them all the time – apparently, they're a new thing in terms of development, so they're keeping from using them too long and too often lest something goes wrong," Jaune explained. "And he can't exactly send soldiers to stalk them, not when just about everyone under his command is required to be tending to other things."

Amber nodded. Fair enough.

It was at this point that she took notice of something that she honestly should've seen right off the bat.

"Your 'coat' is gone."

Jaune merely smiled a little sheepishly. "I asked him to go keep an eye on my sister and her friends."

"They're already up and about?" Amber couldn't help but sound surprised. Given how exhausted all of the students were from reconstruction efforts yesterday, she was surprised any of them would already be up.

"Well, not willingly on my sister's and her team's part – apparently, team RWBY had woken up early thanks to Ruby's efforts and she dragged them across the hall to wake up my sister and her team and then she dragged _all_ of them to one of the training rooms. They've been there for the past two hours so far." Jaune looked amused as he explained all this.

"Heh, I doubt your sister appreciated that. Especially since all of them are probably still recovering from the Breach," Amber replied as she finished off her omelet.

"She didn't – she messaged me, begging me to help her get away from team RWBY and, I quote here, 'return to the sanctuary of rest.' That's how I know this happened at all."

"What was your response to her message?"

"I pretty much ignored her pleas and messaged 'Training this early? You make our ancestors proud! Best of luck, sis!'" Jaune looked like he was about to laugh a little.

Amber couldn't blame him. It was a fairly minor thing, but it showed the sort of peaceful everyday lives that they all were trying to protect.

So instead of laughing, the Fall Maiden smiled softly at the young man before her, leaning forward a little as she rested her head against one of her hands. "Well aren't you just the most supportive big brother ever? What a lucky girl," she teased gently.

Jaune's smile turned a little wiry in nature at that. "That's kind of you to say…"

Amber knew right away by the subtle shift in his voice that she'd just triggered something. So stopping with the teasing, she eyed him curiously. "…Something wrong?"

"Err, not exactly. But…" He trailed off.

"But?"

"It's about my sister, actually."

Amber quirked an eyebrow. Seems like her comment had sparked something in Jaune. "How so?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest, she may be quite important in the upcoming Trial… so long as she can awaken her semblance, that is."

Okay. Now that grabbed the entirety of her attention. "What do mean? Does she have some kind of special power too?"

Jaune looked thoughtful at that. "Well, it's certainly a special power – my friend and I can certainly account for that much. But it's not in the same fashion as the silver eyes or your maiden power. It's something else."

The Fall Maiden could only stare, completely befuddled. That was rather vague. "Okay… care to elaborate a little? And why such a long face now?"

"I'm afraid I can't quite answer that first question. Tenebrous knows for sure what my sister's semblance is since he can sense that sort of thing, but not so much on my part… still learning how to do so. All I know is that it's not exactly conventional, at least as far as that term can be applied to semblances." The blond young man paused. "As for the second question, well, I just have to question sometimes if I really am that good a brother. I mean, I came here to Beacon partially to watch over her yet at the same time, I and others are going to be relying on her to provide much needed support during the Trial. And that's still not getting into the attention I keep paying to the Trial rather than her nowadays. With that in mind, can I really be called a good brother?"

Ah, now she saw the reason why her teasing words had caused this sudden shift in him. "Well, I'm afraid I can't give you a completely objective answer there." Her immediate response made him wince just a little. She wasn't done just yet, however. "But it's pretty obvious that you care about her a lot. Only a complete idiot wouldn't be able to tell that you'd much rather have her well away from the fighting. Using her, as you think you're doing, is probably not the best thing to do, but if she's anything like the other students here, she'd be jumping into the fray of her own accord anyways. So if anything, all you're doing is apparently trying to provide a direction for her, whether she knows it or not."

At that, Jaune seemed to perk up a bit more, his dull blue eyes staring at her in such an intense way that Amber couldn't quite keep her body from heating up a little. "W-Well, in any case, it's not like there's such a thing as a perfect big brother or anything, so if trying to be that was your main worry, then you ought to just give it up. Just focus on doing what you can for her and the others, and then I'd say you'd be a great big brother."

That had been little more than a well-spoken ramble on her part, but it seemed to have the desired effect since her listener's expression was no longer sullen, but rather a bit more cheerful, a small and thankful smile on his face.

"I… Amber, thanks," Jaune could only say softly.

"You're welcome," she replied, smiling back. Thinking quickly, she spoke up again. "So. Now that I'm done with breakfast, care to do me a favor?"

Jaune blinked at that. "Sure. What kind of favor?"

Amber's expression turned serious. "With the Trial approaching so quickly now, absolutely none of us can afford to be lax. Myself included, obviously." She took a bit of a deep breath and stared directly into her listener's dull blue eyes. "Put summarily, I need to make sure I'm back in top form. My aura and maiden power may have kept my body from atrophying for all that time, but I need to make sure that I'm still as capable as I was before overall… and my 'fight' against your friend during the Breach didn't exactly help me gauge things, considering the circumstances."

Jaune's eyes narrowed as he evidently tried to digest what she'd said. "Wait, so are you saying-?"

Amber smiled in challenge. "Spar with me, Jaune. I think it'd be a good thing for the both of us."

Oh, the look of complete of shock on his face right then and there… she couldn't help but relish it.

This ought to be interesting, to say the least.

* * *

It was a new day and with it was hopefully the beginning of a new era, in a sense.

Adam certainly hoped so.

Having returned to the safehouse hours ago and subsequently reestablishing contact with the White Fang, Adam was to be picked up soon and taken to one of their many secret strongholds back in Mistral. He'd made sure to specify he be taken to said stronghold for it was there that he'd be able to start gathering up some support and resources.

He hardly had any official authority there due to the organizational structure of the group, but he knew that many members there were of a similar opinion as him in terms of how things should be done. So garnering support for the future attack shouldn't be too difficult to do; it was simply a matter of stoking the flames of vengeance in the right people there and then letting them take care of any further recruiting.

Especially when they see the Grimm he'll be having at their side during the future attack.

Of course, he'll be leaving where exactly he got the Grimm from as well as who had provided them. For now, he owed Salem that much in terms of confidentiality.

Speaking of the woman…

Seated within the safehouse, Adam let out a 'humph' in a most derisive fashion. He was no fool. He knew that Salem very well had her reasons for wishing to crush Vale and presumably the other kingdoms as well – she seemed like that kind of person. In any case, it'd been impossible to miss the bloodlust that the woman had been trying to suppress. No doubt that whatever exactly her plans were, she'd be aiming to wipe out the White Fang alongside everyone else as well, himself naturally included among the numbers.

Salem turning against him was, simply put, an inevitability. But for now, she seemed content on using him just as much as he was using her for this kickstarter in garnering resources and support.

So now his main concern, aside from planning out the smaller details for the attack, was just how best to deal with Salem once their goals ceased to coincide. He was no fool – she was plenty strong all on her own and the Grimm at her beck and call would only make taking her out that much more difficult. Getting past the Grimm shouldn't be too hard in theory, but with her in control of them, he ought to expect the beasts of darkness to be much more difficult to maneuver around and take down. Casualties would be quite heavy since he'd need an entire platoon of White Fang members to storm her place and deal with said Grimm.

The question was, however, just what else was Salem capable of. He knew that she was powerful, but how powerful exactly when on her own? What sort of capabilities did she possess? Did she have any kind of personal weapon?

A part of him wanted to say no to that last question, for she'd been without one during his brief time there at her castle. However, another part of him countered the initial thought by bringing up the simple fact that she'd had the homefield advantage completely at the time. What need of a weapon would she have had when she had that many Grimm around her? Ergo, even that otherwise simple question had no certain answer.

Still, at the end of the day, she was but one person. No matter how powerful she may be, no matter what kind of combat style she may have, and no matter how many Grimm she can call on, Adam was confident that taking her down shouldn't be a suicidal task. It was simply a matter of having enough skilled operatives at his side to fight against her as well as the possible element of surprise. After which, wearing her down little by little should be a relatively easy task so long as they remained alert.

…Or so Adam was trying to tell himself.

Truthfully, he was wary of the woman. There were far too many unknown factors about or at least related to her to make any kind of decent battleplan against her as of this moment. So it was his hope that once she'd sent the promised Grimm to him, he'd be able to perhaps gleam some new information about her from that one movement. A futile hope, yes, but it was the only thing he had to work with as of now.

…Oh well. If nothing else, he could certainly believe that she won't be attempting to get rid of him and the White Fang until Vale at the very least had been completely crushed. Given how much time would pass until that desired moment, he should hopefully be able to come up with something concrete by then.

Until then, he'll focus on the more pressing matter at hand.

And only then, once it's been done… Salem will get what's coming to her.

* * *

Glynda inwardly groaned as what could only be another long day in the making truly began for her.

Having awakened early once more to prep for the day, she found some solace in knowing that once again the students would be busy assisting in the city with further reconstruction efforts. Despite her own less than stellar mood right now, she will readily admit to being proud of the students, both from Beacon and from the other academies, as they readily helped out despite how fatigued they must still be both from still recovering physically and mentally from the Breach as well as from previous efforts in reconstruction.

That said, just because classes would still be canceled for the rest of this week didn't mean she could afford even a moment of rest. In light of the Breach, it was high time to reassess lesson plans so that they were more vigorous, to better prepare students so that an event such as the Breach would never happen again.

Or so she and the other faculty members liked to tell them. In reality, there was still that horrific Trial coming up that she and the others had been told of by Jaune and that god, Tenebrous.

And it was thanks to this Trial that she and the others were spending so much time each and every day now trying to figure out ever more effective ways of preparing for it.

Calls were made pretty much daily to coordinate with the other professors from the academies as well as with any other members of the Atlas military back in said kingdom – thankfully James was taking care of that particular task – in order to make sure they were all on the same page and doing their part to ready things for what was to come.

It sure wasn't easy by any stretch by the word and that was really saying something given her own definition of 'easy' and 'hard,' but so far they were all getting by, it would seem.

Now if only she didn't have to deal with this on top of literally everything else from before…

Stifling a second uncharacteristic groan, Glynda walked out of her room, fully dressed and putting up her usual mask of stern indifference and began to all but stalk her way down the halls. Maybe she could swing by the cafeteria for a moment to grab a quick bite to eat. Nothing major; an apple or two would suffice for now until later.

Walking in the direction of the cafeteria, however, she ended up slowing down and narrowing her eyes upon seeing Jaune and Amber exit the building.

Well that certainly wasn't a sight she'd been expecting to see for some reason. Probably because she still wasn't quite used to the new fact that Amber now had Ozpin's permission to walk around the campus. Hardly something she had a problem with given how stir-crazy the maiden would have eventually ended up being, but still… a part of Glynda questioned the decision just a little bit.

She hoped Ozpin had made a good decision.

That aside…

"Good morning," she called out to the two as they started walking in her general direction.

"Oh, Glynda. Good morning!" Jaune greeted with an awkward wave.

"G'morning," Amber greeted more calmly.

Glynda inwardly hummed in confusion. Amber appeared to be leading her blond assistant somewhere by the hand.

"I take it you just had a hardy breakfast, yes? And may I ask where you two will be running off to now?" She tried to inquire as casually as possible about the hand holding and how Jaune's uncertain expression contrasted significantly with Amber's determined and smiling one.

"Hmm? Oh, we're just off to use one of your training rooms," Amber replied in as casual a manner. She motioned to Jaune. "I want to see whether or not I've gotten rusty thanks to my coma, so Jaune's going to spar with me."

"Oh, I see," Glynda said with a nod.

Made sense, can't fault her there.

…

…

Wait, what?!

A little shakily, Glynda looked back and forth between the Fall Maiden and Jaune, the 'Apostle' of a god. Memories of the spar between him and Peter rushed forward in her mind and with the stories of the maidens suddenly feeling fresh to her, the deputy headmistress could only pale ever so slightly.

If these two actually did fight…

Oh lord, no, the sheer amount of time and effort she would have to expend to fix the room on top of everything else she had to do…

Taking a split second to compose herself, Glynda eyed Amber as neutrally as possible. "That's a very wise thing to do. After all, your power will be required during the challenge ahead of us. That said, if you want to really test yourself and see where you currently stand, why not spar out in the forest? From what I understand, you were a wanderer prior to ending up under our care. You can still test to see if your senses and instincts are still used to fighting in such a terrain since the upcoming battle will likely be taking place in such a setting."

She saw the way Amber's eyes lit up and Glynda ended up nearly letting out a sigh of relief as a result.

"You're right!" She turned around promptly and began to drag Jaune with her, who could only blink numbly this whole time. "Then if you'll excuse us, Glynda. Come on, Jaune! Time to show each other what we got!"

"O-Okay…" the young man in question could be heard muttering. "Just try not to burn the forest down, alright?"

As they slowly disappeared from her sights, Glynda really did let out the relieved sigh she'd initially repressed.

Now _that_ had been a close call.

After all, God only knows how tired she'd have been if she'd had to deal with cleaning up after those two in addition to everything else. Seriously, this honestly felt like more of a trial in and of itself.

She could only imagine how much worse it'll be once the Trial starts for real.

…And yet, while she did dread what was to inevitably come, there was a small part of her that couldn't help but-.

-No. No, she wasn't that kind of person anymore. She had far too many people to look after and care for to afford being such a person again.

…No matter how much a part of her may be wishing otherwise.

With a grunt of annoyance aimed at herself, Glynda began her trek again to the cafeteria, her mood worsening already.

She sure hoped this wasn't a sign of the day to come.

* * *

"Well? How are things coming along?" James Ironwood couldn't quite keep the gruffness out of his voice as he made his call.

Thankfully, the subordinate he was calling either didn't notice or was able to simply ignore it. Hard to tell with her sometimes despite how much he trusted her.

"Last I talked to them – sometime last night – they said that the paladins were more or less ready, sir. Only a few more tweaks to be made, supposedly," answered his subordinate from the other end of the line, Winter Schnee.

Older sister to Weiss and Whitley Schnee and scion of the family for having, to quote the woman's unbearable father, the 'gall to abandon the family,' Winter Schnee was easily one of his most talented and trusted operatives. As a specialist, she was heads and shoulders above most others in his army, both in rank and in power, intellect, and skill.

Alas, she was back in Atlas, serving as his stand-in regarding other matters while he was here in Vale. At first, her duties had been fairly minor, merely tending to some meetings and hearings that he ought to have been doing, but with this damned Trial now on the figurative horizon, James was quick to imagine that the white-haired woman had almost as much on her plate now as he did as she acted as his direct intermediary between him and his R&D division.

Not that he was complaining.

"Good. How about our other projects?" he asked of her.

"Our AK line is still in the process of receiving complete weapons upgrades and given that our R&D division is trying to balance this with everything else, I personally estimate they'll be fully upgraded by the end of the month," Winter stated.

James suppressed a 'tsk' at that. AK was short for Atlesian Knight, the android foot soldiers that the kingdom of Atlas had created some odd years ago. They've undergone a handful of complete overhauls since then, but there's always been a need for further improvements, both to their AIs and to the physical capabilities they possess.

Ordinarily, the AKs could easily dispatch any rioters and the more immature Grimm such as Beowulves and even some Ursas… but only in small numbers. With the ever so lovely description of the Trial that Jaune Arc and the 'Power' had given him and the others, the Grimm would be coming at them in such vast numbers that James was now halfway expecting a veritable sea of blackness to just try and crush everything underfoot.

As such, the AKs would be far more crucial now than ever; they'd make great foot soldiers in this upcoming endeavor, since for every 'death' the AKs suffered, that would hopefully mean one more person would be spared a gruesome fate.

And if everything goes well, the AKs along with the paladins should hopefully be able to provide much needed suppressing fire and artillery support while his soldiers and professional huntsmen and huntresses held the line and even press forward.

But there were a lot of 'hopeful' lines of thought there and as general of the Atlas military, that wasn't something James could afford to rely on. He had to rely on numbers, on concrete evidence, and reliable intelligence. Hope was a damn nice thing to have, but it wasn't a good substitute for everything else.

So it was with barely withheld frustration that he spoke again. "I understand. Still, if possible, tell them to hurry it up. If need be, tell them to not bother with tests – the upgraded AKs will be getting plenty of 'field-testing' in due time anyways."

As things were, if what Winter had just said was accurate – she often was accurate in her estimations – then the AKs would have ended up completely more or less just as the Trial started. That obviously wouldn't do.

But his own command just now was hardly going to make things better in immediate hindsight. Even Winter seemed to be thinking such a thing if the troubled look on her face was anything to go by. "Sir, I wouldn't really advise that. As it is, our R&D crew are spread thin already and many of them looked just about ready to start a mutiny when I last paid a visit. Even though you've secured all but a blank check for them, what they need now is more people. Either that or more time… and I believe we're short in supply on both, sir."

James really tried not to growl. Winter made a damn good point.

With most of the army here with him, there were hardly any back home in comparison. That said, he did have a small crew of technicians here on some of his airships so perhaps he could send them back to R&D and see if they could lend a hand in speeding things up.

"I'll see what I can do about the manpower part," James said slowly. "As for the issue of time in general, that's something out of all our hands."

"Sir, if I may, why not allow me over there by your side? With all due respect to our men, I alone am equal to a few platoons! Surely, I could be of more help-!" Winter began.

But before she could allow her emotions to start getting the better of her, James cut her off with a swift motion of the hand, the gesture immediately silencing her.

"You certainly are, Winter. And that's why I need you to remain in Atlas," he replied. Her zeal was admirable, but it was also because of how strong she was that she had to remain in Atlas.

During the Trial, the Grimm would be swarming everyone at Salem's commands. Vale wouldn't be the only place hit – the other kingdoms would be forced to fend for themselves as well. And while he would be damned before letting any kingdom go undefended, he couldn't afford to concentrate so much manpower here in Vale. He'd need capable people such as Winter to remain in Atlas to combat the Grimm there when they come, both on the frontlines and from a commanding position.

"In any case, I have Penny here with me, currently undergoing a maintenance check before the day is to truly begin. While her skill may only be equal to that of first or second year trainee, her overall power and combat capabilities will be enough to make up for it for the time being. And it's not like I am not capable of fighting on the frontlines," he began.

As if to emphasize the point, he made a fist with his right hand, the joints within the robotic limb loudly tightening in a threatening manner. On its own, it was naturally much stronger than his original arm and when enhanced with his aura, he could easily deal with even the largest of Beowulves and Ursas.

"…Very well, sir," Winter reluctantly responded.

If James were anyone else, he might have simply acknowledged the response and leave it at that, but he knew much better. Winter's sense of duty was strong, but that most likely wasn't why she'd requested to come here.

"I'm certain your sister will be fine," the general commented naturally. "From what I understand, she and her team were among the few to emerge fairly unscathed when compared to others during the Breach."

If there was one thing that Winter held dear more than her duty, it was her sister, Weiss Schnee. Given what he's told her, however, of the Trial that was to come, it was only natural that the specialist would start to fret over the overall safety of her dear younger sister.

"…I know she will, sir. Nonetheless, thank you," the woman said with a small yet honest smile of gratitude. Not even she, an otherwise upright and stoic person for the most part, was able to quite keep her nerves in this situation.

Not that James could hardly blame her.

"Then if there's nothing else, specialist…" he began.

"I'll relay your orders to the R&D division, sir. As well as tend to other matters," Winter finished for him. Giving him a quick salute, she was the first to end the call just as he returned it.

Now that the call was over with, James let out a long sigh as he sagged back into his chair, feeling drained already.

For what felt like weeks when in fact it was merely a few days thus far, he'd likely made more calls than he ever had before and even then it was far from over. There was still much to be coordinated and although his forces currently here will remain here until the Trial, he still needed to send at least some manpower and supplies to the other academies as well.

But with the AKs taking so long along with the paladins, he was beginning to seriously worry about whether or not the preparations he'd personally set in motion would be ready in time to make a difference.

"Damn it all…" he muttered, wishing already for a strong drink. Alas, he was no Qrow, meaning he had no nearby stash of alcohol nearby. Looks like he was going to have to wait.

His scroll beeped suddenly, nearly making him jump due to how out of it he currently was. Nonetheless, he recovered well enough and answered it. It was audio only this time, no visual call.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Sorry to bother you sir, but it's about the woman you asked us to keep track of," spoke the soldier on the other end of the call.

By that, the soldier meant none other than the maiden, Amber. The young woman had finally been able to get permission from Ozpin to leave her chambers and explore the academy… much to his consternation.

While he had no issue with allowing the maiden to stretch her legs lest she go stir-crazy, the complete lack of guards she had was driving his paranoia into overdrive. A powerful maiden she may be, but there was no telling just what could happen. Given the sort of power she could easily command, it was critical to keep her safe and well rested until it was time to finally cut loose.

So to this end, he'd taken the liberty of having one of his men commandeer one of their smaller drones to follow her from afar, ensuring there were no sneak attacks on her person. He did this without Ozpin's knowledge or permission, of course; the last thing he wanted was to get into an argument with him over it that would only be a waste of time and energy.

Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, after all.

In any case, he was certainly feeling alert now. "What is it? Has something happened?" he demanded. Damn it, he knew he should have tried harder to talk the woman into keeping a low profile still. Had that criminal, Cinder Fall, made a move? Was that even possible in her current state?

"Well, I wouldn't say something's happened… but something might," spoke the soldier in an awkward voice. "She's heading for the forest with a guy in tow."

…A guy? Seriously? He knew she'd been more than a little frustrated being cooped up, but he hadn't been expecting her to be frustrated in 'that wa-.'

Wait a second.

"Was this man by chance someone in his late teens? Blond and blue eyed? Dressed in plain clothes?" he asked, already knowing the answer now.

"Uh, yes sir! From what the drone's audio detection picked up, it seems like his name is… Jean?"

"Jaune…" James automatically corrected. He was massaging his temple with the fingers of his robotic hand, already feeling a headache about to start.

In the extremely brief time he's come to know Jaune Arc, it seems like the young man had a knack for throwing metaphorical curveballs at him. First the very existence of Tenebrous, the truth behind the Grimm and Salem, the Trial… and now whatever the hell he knew Jaune was about to do.

"According to what else the drone picked up, I think they're going to the forest to spar, of all things," spoke the soldier.

At that, James nearly froze outright.

He's heard of what Jaune is capable of thanks to the conversations he's had with Ozpin and Glynda, not to mention the video he was briefly shown of the blond fighting against Peter.

If he really is about to spar with a maiden of all people…

"…Send me the exact coordinates of their location as soon as possible!" he said before ending the call.

No longer feeling fatigued for the moment, he immediately got up out of his chair and started to make a run for it.

The absolute last thing he needed was a repeat of what had happened at the end of the spar between Jaune and Peter. And if Amber somehow went through something similar…

He feared that there might not be much of a forest left should such a thing occur.

In which case, all the more reason to hurry the hell up and observe the spar from as close a spot as possible. God help him if he actually needs to step in and stop things before they escalate too much.

* * *

For what felt like the thousandth or so time during his stay at Beacon, Jaune was feeling pretty damned confused and taken aback in general by how things have played out.

So he could tell himself with complete certainty that suddenly being dragged off to spar with Amber was only the tip of the iceberg of weirdness that he would be experiencing all too soon.

Not that he was particularly against it – Amber did raise a good point in that she needs to be at top form to be of the most help during the Trial. And unlike before, where he'd worried about fighting her because she might try to kill him, he knew for a fact that now that she was in the know, such a fear was unfounded.

Still didn't make him feel any less nervous as he continued to follow the Fall Maiden deeper into the forest. To Tenebrous even when in his vastly reduced state, a maiden may hardly be much of a challenge, but to someone of his level? Yeah, that was an entirely different story.

"So," he began suddenly. "Think we're far enough away?"

Amber hummed a little before responding, her aura, now almost fully restored shining brightly to his otherwise blind eyes. "I believe so."

He stopped and watched as the woman continued to walk forward, but at a much slower pace than before just as she let go of his hand – hmm, how odd for her to have done so all this time though – and then proceeding to stop fifteen feet away from him.

"Alright! So let's not waste too much time here. The rules are simple: fight until one of us is knocked down five times or until one of our auras is almost completely depleted. I'll be trusting you to keep an eye on that part."

Given his Aura Vision, he could tell just how much a person's aura had been worn down, so that made sense. He nodded in understanding. "Okay, sounds good. But didn't you used to have a weapon?"

From what he understood, Amber had once possessed a simple staff during her traveling days, but following her coma, it seems to have just completely disappeared. He had no idea if it'd simply been broken all that time ago or something else had happened to it.

But in response, the maiden merely chuckled. "Not to worry – my maiden power can do a bit more than simply manipulate the weather."

With his Aura Vision, Jaune could only watch in fascination as a small part of Amber's aura split from her body and sank into the ground, moving and forming within it until it took the shape of a polearm, made from the very earth itself as it rose up into her outstretched hands. This occurred in the span of mere seconds yet to him, it had felt to have taken longer due to how intrigued he was by the process.

"Wow… that's really handy!" He ended up commenting like that before he even realized what he was doing.

In response, Amber could only laugh once more a little. "Coming from a guy who's the Apostle of a god, I'll take that as a compliment." Then her aura shifted as her emotional state changed. He could literally see how serious the maiden now was. "Well then, with all that said and done, let's get started, shall we? And don't you dare take it easy on me, even if I did say this is a spar."

Seeing her shift into a stance, Jaune did the same, smiling as he did so. "Don't worry. With you as my opponent, holding back kind of wasn't an option from the start."

An emotion he couldn't quite identify caused Amber's aura to fluctuate momentarily before it disappeared. "You know, a girl could really get a swelled ego from all that flattery. Not that it's a bad thing."

"Now then…" the woman began. "Let's go!"

And with those words, their spar finally began.

* * *

 **Heh, been wanting to do a fight between Amber and Jaune for a long while now. Originally, back when I'd been planning out the major parts of this story, I'd intended to have them fight during the Breach event, but then had changed it to have Amber encounter Tenebrous instead. I did so in order to showcase how exactly conflicts would go with her between both the god and its Apostle, that way you guys will see exactly the sort of power gap the two of them have currently have.**

 **Well with that said, peaceful times – for a certain definition of 'peaceful' – won't be lasting much longer. Aside from a few more shows of preparations, this story will be reaching its final arc fairly soon, though said final arc will be lasting quite a while due to all of the things I have planned for it.**

 **Hope you'll look forward to it!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	36. Chapter 36

Whew, can't believe how quickly I got the chapter of my original novel done! Still, I'm going to have to definitely go back and edit things whenever I do finish writing it… and that's one day that's definitely far off from now given just how much more I want/need to write for it. Oh boy, that's going to be frustrating in its own way… heh, but also just as exciting!

Ah, and now Fate/Grand Order is finally out in English! Heard online how some people are disagreeing – quite strongly from what I recall – over the 'official' translations of certain names and lines. While I can understand that frustration, I'm sure it won't get in the way of playing the game. Heh, of course, I have to upgrade my all but ancient phone in order to download it first. Hope it's as fun as people say it is!

Well, not much more to be said really, so let's get onto the chapter!

P.S. Got to see Resident Evil Vendetta recently. As narmy as some scenes were, even by the series' standards, it had some incredible fight choreography! I'd recommend the movie just for that alone!

Chapter 36

With lightning speed, Amber wasted no time in making the first move.

Wielding her makeshift earth staff, she all but slid forward and swung it at Jaune's knees, hoping to bring him down right away.

But to her expectations, the blond young man countered her move by smashing his left knee into it, the force behind it causing her own strike to lurch a bit.

Now she could've tried to push forward, engage in a bit of a power struggle right then and there and see if she could force her strike through, but this wasn't some kind of kid show. This was life. And spar or not, she would react accordingly.

Withdrawing her staff, she pivoted and whilst moving back a few inches, she lashed out with a sudden thrust towards Jaune's head. It proved to be an attack that he could indeed avoid, tilting his head to the right by just a few inches, her staff just barely grazing his blond hair as it swished in the wind.

Jaune charged forward, his right hand reaching up to grab her weapon, but seeing what he was planning, Amber immediately pulled back her staff once more and started to backpedal in order to put some distance in between them.

Jaune followed after her, his 'blind' eyes locking onto her with an intensity that honestly made her feel a little giddy in a way that she couldn't identify right now.

The blond young man then suddenly skidded and began to circle around her, disappearing for the briefest of seconds behind some trees.

Undeterred by this, Amber readied herself for Jaune's inevitable attack and he didn't disappoint. From in between two of the trees closest to her, his fist came hurtling forward, aiming for her chest. With a slight grunt, she maneuvered her staff to bat the fist aside with enough power to send it nearly smacking into one of the trees.

In the instant following this, Amber couldn't help but feel that doing so had been too easy for some reason and it turned out another instant later that her feeling was correct.

The fist opened up and gripped the nearest tree and from the other side of it, Jaune came swinging around, having used his grip and the momentum of his failed blow to literally throw himself around the tree.

With a 'hup!' he let loose a fierce kick in midair that would've definitely left a huge bruise on her face if she hadn't ducked at the last possible moment.

But it looked like Jaune wasn't done just yet, for with his hand still gripping the tree, he let out a huff and yanked the _entire_ tree out of the ground and swung it at Amber while still in the air.

Ambers eyes widened involuntarily, surprised but hardly to the point of freezing. With her staff, formed and strengthened from equal part earth and her own aura, she wielded it like a long sword right now and with one mighty swing, she split the incoming tree in half.

Splinters erupted all around her as the tree broke apart and turning around in time to see Jaune land on the ground, Amber tapped into her maiden power just a little bit.

The splinters, numbering in the thousands, began to coalesce in the air, defying physics as they went from splattering everywhere to redirecting themselves towards Jaune, thousands becoming hundreds then becoming dozens as they merged together into what could only now be described as wooden stakes that were now traveling at hypersonic speeds and were easily sharp enough to pierce through steel.

Of course, to her expectations, Amber watched as Jaune weaved in between the stakes with a surprising amount of grace. No doubt, his Aura Vision could pick up the aura contained within them, allowing him to 'see' the stakes as clearly as she could see him.

Once more, he ran at her and unlike before, she charged forward to meet him. Thanks to her staff's overall size as well as the fact that it's, well, a staff, outright close combat ought to be impractical for her since properly maneuvering her weapon would be impossible. For staff users such as herself, it was important to keep opponents several feet away in order to fully capitalize on her weapon's range.

But this didn't apply to her.

She relished the slight shock that appeared on Jaune's face as they neared one another and without wasting any time, they both went on the attack simultaneously.

Jaune's fists became little more than blurs as he struck out at her with jabs, crosses, uppercuts and elbow strikes. That wasn't even including the occasional clinches, knee strikes, and stomps that he liked to mix in as well. Even to her, these blows were blindingly fast and immensely strong, no doubt capable of doing some serious damage to her if they connected.

But the very same could be said for her as well. Currently on the defensive right now – intentionally so, it must be said – she masterfully pivoted from the waist and slid her feet back in order to deftly avoid Jaune's knee strikes and stomps while she twirled and thrust upwards and otherwise moved her staff to block, parry, and deflect the various punches and elbow blows Jaune kept on throwing from little more than a foot away.

This close to one another, Amber only scarcely noted how all of their limbs were little more than blurs to each other as they actually _sped up_ , the two of them taking this ridiculously close encounter as a challenge of sorts.

As they duked it out and as she now began to deal out her own attacks by trying to essentially whack Jaune across either side of his face or ram him with either end of the staff, the two of them went from being on either all out offense and defense to an ever-perfecting blend of both, attacking and responding to attacks in equal measure.

The attacks themselves became increasingly stronger as well, with missed blows disturbing the air all around them, nearby trees creaking and breaking apart from the sheer level of air pressure their attacks were generating.

To Amber and likely to Jaune as well, this seemed to last for hours on end, a testament to the intensity of their close encounter despite it only lasting little more than half a minute in reality. Eventually, they both found this to be a little too intense for them and so they broke it off, the two leaping away an extra foot or two in order to open up a more comfortable distance…

Or so they'd try to have each other believe.

Faster than she could react, Jaune grabbed her by the arm just as she'd started to jump back and used her own momentum to perform a perfect shoulder-toss. It would've left her embedded in the ground below had it fully gone through, but she was able to stab her staff into the ground and wrap her own hand around Jaune's throwing arm.

Thanks to her ground stab having halted the shoulder-toss, it left the blond young man open just enough for her to return the favor, grabbing him and outright throwing him with a level of strength that belied her lithe and slender figure.

She looked on as the blond went sailing through the air and spun. Jaune then landed on a particularly thick tree feet-first and kicked off of it hard to make it explode under the force. He now sailed towards her, spinning forward through the air more than a dozen times before unleashing an axe-kick.

Sensing the power behind it, Amber determined in an instant that blocking it would be impossible and so she leapt back, tapping into her maiden power in order to manipulate the wind to further propel herself away.

She was correct to do so, for as Jaune's axe-kick smashed into the ground, what could only be described as an earthquake occurred, shaking the entire area as the spot he struck cratered and spider-web cracks formed for tens of meters.

Debris was sent flying everywhere and Amber had to spin her staff around for a couple of seconds to deflect the pieces that came her way. After that, she immediately hoisted her staff up high, channeling some of her maiden power once, this time directly into the staff just before stabbing it into the ground.

She felt her maiden power kick into action, ejecting itself from the staff, which acted in this instance as a 'trigger,' and spreading into and through the ground before concentrating itself and traveling to the spot where Jaune was at.

The maiden power then burst forth, literally burst forth from the ground in the form of what could only be described as a geyser of dirt that was intense enough to split a bullhead in two. Jaune somersaulted to avoid it, landing just outside the crater in a crouched position, looking not unlike a predator in waiting, sizing up his prey.

And in this case, his prey was her.

Somewhere in a certain part of her mind, this particular comparison was running wild, but Amber ignored the images that said part of her mind was promptly conjuring up.

The action lulling for the moment, the two of them merely stared at one another, she in a combat stance while Jaune remained predatorily crouched.

Amber couldn't help but smile.

Despite her words prior to the start of this spar, she had been holding back thus far, having merely wanted to get a feel for how Jaune moved before truly going all out. And she could tell that Jaune had been doing the same.

They'd merely been warming up. But now the time has come for the warm up to end…

…And for their 'true' spar to really begin.

* * *

Through his Aura Vision, Jaune watched intensely as Amber's emotions seemed to fluctuate. The one thing that stayed consistent throughout this moment, however, was the outright eagerness she seemed to be so strongly feeling.

A part of him couldn't help but feel the same way.

Thus far, the two of them had merely been good naturedly getting a feel for one another, testing the waters. Now that they'd done so, they could really kick things into high gear, something that both excited and worried him.

It excited him, since he could now find out just how he, in his current state, compares to a fully healed maiden without the risk of being killed.

But it also worried him since, while they wouldn't intentionally be trying to kill one another, that didn't mean _some_ risk of serious injury didn't exist.

Ergo, he'd still need to exercise a good deal of caution, more so than what would otherwise be expected of such a serious spar. And on that note, he couldn't help but get the feeling that the 'knocked down x amount of times' rule wasn't really going to be all that important.

Whelp, no more time to dawdle around; Amber looked just about ready to attack him, a build-up of aura within her limbs.

Time to preempt her.

Being crouched not unlike an animal, Jaune then chose to make good use of this fact by pouncing directly at the Fall Maiden, all but flying across the crater he'd made a moment ago in a split second.

He could see Amber's aura ripple ever so slightly from surprise, but whatever small hope he'd held of fully blitzing her were crushed when she nigh-immediately responded to his pouncing attack by way of coalescing her aura through her hands and out from them came two lightning bolts.

"Damn it…" he muttered to himself. Looks like Amber was going to start utilizing her maiden power more often now that their spar was in full swing. He really should've seen that coming.

Nonetheless, he managed to shift his momentum enough to fully twist his body and avoid the lightning bolts by just centimeters, the heat of the bolts slightly singing the hairs on his body.

Having managed to dodge them, he ended up reaching Amber, but she'd already moved back, causing him to simply land where she'd just been standing lamely.

Amber was little more than several feet away from him and she was already making her next move, swinging her staff directly at the side of his head. Jaune had no choice but to roll to his right to avoid being struck.

Amber didn't let up, however, for she used the momentum of her strike to carry her across the ground and bring her staff down in a powerful swing that would've killed even the largest of Ursas with ease.

But against Jaune, not so much.

He reached up and grabbed a hold of the staff right before it struck him, his strength proving to be just great enough to halt her blow, but not without some difficulty. Amber sure was physically stronger than he'd actually been expecting, but thankfully it seemed his strength was greater still by a few notches.

With a light grunt, he then stood up with staff still in hand and he turned and yanked as hard as he could overhead. The staff went flying and so did Amber, her bright aura lighting up the area around her. This allowed Jaune to see the several tightly grouped trees that the maiden was going to end up slamming through, but to his (mild) amazement, Amber twirled in place, holding her staff tightly against herself and ended up passing safely through a small opening in between the trees.

She emerged just past the other side of the grouped trees without any damage whatsoever and gracefully landed on the ground.

"Wow…" he couldn't help but think aloud. He stood where he was at for a second, having to just admire the way his sparring partner had pulled that off.

That really had been impressive.

Unfortunately, she didn't give him any further time to admire her moves, for she flexed her aura and the very same trees she'd harmlessly passed through erupted into what could only be called pillars of fire that she then commanded to move towards him at near lightning speed.

Jaune allowed himself a millisecond of genuine surprise even though he was already making his next move.

The pillars, despite their speed, seemed to only be able to move in a straight line, meaning circling around them was his best option. The only thing that might prove cumbersome was the sheer width of each fire pillar, but his speed was great enough to render this point nearly moot.

Still, he made sure to rush around them as fast as he possibly could.

The whole time he did so, he made sure to keep focused on Amber, who moved to intercept him. She was probably thinking his attention was still on the fire pillars or something, for he could pick up something akin to elation and triumph within her.

So he took just a small bit of amusement in seeing that elation turn to shock when, just as they both neared one another, she tried to kick him in the side of his knee only for him to bend his leg and lift it up in time to avoid her attack. Then he brought his foot down as suddenly as he could, stomping on her toes with enough force to completely shatter car sized boulders.

The pained and surprised squeak Amber let out was hilariously high-pitched and he couldn't quite suppress a slight chuckle at her reaction even as he threw a punch at her solar plexus.

But high-pitched squeak or not, Amber was still able to swat his fist aside with her staff and promptly spun it around her whole upper body at a high speed right before it finally connected with the side of Jaune's neck.

"Urk!" It was the only sound he could make as the staff just right below his Adam's apple and he ended up stumbling to the right. This meant his foot was no longer pinning down Amber's and as if to emphasize this point, Amber then used that same foot to kick him hard in the side, right up against his ribs.

Pain greater than anything else he'd nearly experienced before filled his senses for a few milliseconds, but he shrugged it off just as he quickly recovered from the neck strike and grabbed Amber's leg before she could fully retract it. He pulled hard and Amber's form was pulled close to him, close enough for him to wrap his arms around her in what could only be called a hug…

…A hug that last for maybe all of a split second before he bent backwards and suplexed her.

The sound that was made when Amber's entire upper body ended up buried in the ground worried Jaune. Not for very long, though, as Amber's legs then wrapped themselves around him and with a show of impressive lower body strength, flung him over a distance of twenty yards and through several trees.

He bore the pain of each impact without too much trouble and landed on his feet, but by then, Amber had already freed herself from the ground and to his genuine befuddlement, threw her staff directly at him.

Naturally, he caught it with both hands.

Naturally, he should've known better than to do so.

For Amber raised her hands up into the air and seeing her aura at work, Jaune just knew she was going to bring down some serious firepower.

Sure enough, the Fall Maiden did just that in the form of a dozen lightning bolts from the sky, all of them attracted to the staff, which acted as a pseudo-lightning rod thanks to the aura the maiden had infused into it and into the lightning above.

Jaune let go of the staff as quickly as he could and started to backpedal in a straight line. He did so in just the nick of time, with the first half of the lightning bolts hitting the staff while the others were aimed directly for him. Dodging to either side was impossible due to the erratic paths of the bolts so he was forced to keep backing straight up, smashing through a large boulder in the process as if it wasn't even there along with a tree.

Only marginally, did he mentally note the boulder he'd just gone through. Boulders weren't too common throughout most of the forest, but could mainly be found in the general area where initiation was usually held in.

Huh, he hadn't noticed him and Amber going this far out.

As the final lightning bolt missed him by inches, Jaune looked up into the sky above, spotting Amber levitate her way towards him, her staff returning to her hands as she willed it back to her.

She evidently saw him despite being a good forty feet up for Jaune noted yet another build-up of aura but not as great as before. Said aura was then concentrated into her staff and she launched it once more at him.

Eyes narrowing in concentration, Jaune chose to confront this attack head on. He could tell with just a simple glance that the Fall Maiden had essentially turned her staff into an explosive, no doubt meant to detonate on contact, but he nonetheless opted to confront it.

Jumping up a few meters into the air, Jaune then reached out without hesitation for the staff. Sure enough, the very instant his fingers grazed its surface, the aura within was released and took the form of an explosion easily tens of feet in diameter and with enough power to fatally injure a Goliath.

The pain was immense and he could feel most of his shirt get blown off along with the part of his pants that covered up his calves, but he soldiered through it long enough to fully grab the staff – still intact, he eagerly noted – just before the force of the explosion blasted him back towards the ground.

Spinning a dozen times over, he hit the ground hard but lessened the damage he took overall by rolling along for a few feet before managing to get back on his feet, a snapping sound reverberating in the process.

And as he stood back up, he spun once and flung the staff right back at Amber at hypersonic speeds.

He watched as the young woman swerved in midair to avoid it, her head turning to watch as the staff kept on flying upwards and onwards into the distance.

This meant that she didn't see it coming when he then threw the _other_ part of the staff that he'd broken off in mid-roll.

He imagined Amber heard a faint swooshing sound of some kind, for she turned to look back at him with confusion coloring her aura, confusion that then turned to complete panic upon seeing the second object he'd thrown, which was little more than a foot away from her face by the time she saw it.

And naturally, avoiding it at that point had been impossible. So Jaune was treated to the sound of the staff part smashing loudly into Amber's nose and eyes hard enough to for it – the staff part, that is – to break further on impact.

In pain from the hit and with her concentration broken, Amber's levitation came to an end and she went plummeting to the ground.

Jaune dashed forth to reach her, uncertain if he was supposed to capitalize on this moment and attack or catch her in case the fall proved to be too much for her.

He needn't have bothered, for Amber recovered in mid-fall and concentrated once more to restore her levitation, causing her to arc and start gliding directly above the trees.

She passed directly over him without slowing and Jaune had to grind to a brief halt before turning around and giving chase.

For once, he mildly cursed his lack of any ranged options thanks to being a complete brawler, but this only lasted a few seconds before Amber's aura, lighting up the entire area thanks to how powerful and intense it was, lit up the path.

He recognized where they were going.

The same area where his sister's team along with team RWBY had faced that Nevermore and Deathstalker.

A fully open area, in other words… well then, this ought to be interesting.

* * *

With a speed that many likely wouldn't expect of him, James Ironwood charged across Beacon and towards the forest in record time.

By now, a number of students had started to get up and start their day in earnest and it looks like they were going to get a bit of a spectacle to go along with their breakfast.

For off in the distance, what were undoubtedly the sounds of battle were ringing out loudly for them to hear.

It didn't help that some trees could clearly be seen being toppled or outright destroyed. And that wasn't even getting into the 'odd' weather changes, with the sky going from clear to cloudy to stormy and back again sporadically and only in certain spots.

Were he a lesser man, James would've already ripped out all of his hair from the panic he now felt.

Whatever exactly was going on in that forest – it seemed a little too much to call it a spar anymore – it was only a matter of time until students got curious enough to go looking into things themselves.

If that happened, Amber would be seen and while in such a scenario it'd be impossible for someone to figure out she was a maiden, the mere knowledge of Amber and her obviously incredible power would likely spread like a wildfire across the net.

God damned web forums.

By now, he'd already managed to leap into the forest, his landing most ungraceful and loud, but effective nonetheless.

Gritting his teeth in equal parts mounting frustration and worry, he burst into a sprint once more, following the sounds of battle with ease.

Kind of hard not to know what direction it was coming from, anyways; one would truly have to be blind not to spot the miniature _tornado_ that was changing directions constantly.

Oh, the sheer number of trees and ground that it ripped up as it kept on moving… James wanted to cry over the destruction Amber was causing right now.

Rushing a little more quickly now, James put aside his growing concern just long enough to realize where exactly the tornado was centered at – the ruins that Ozpin liked to use to hold relics for initiations.

He inwardly sighed. At least Amber and Jaune Arc had made sure to go a fair distance away from the academy for this. Not to mention that the ruins were already pretty messed up from many years of just sitting there, unoccupied. So those two destroying the area a bit more honestly wasn't that troubling anymore.

Nonetheless, he wasn't about to turn back. Amber and Jaune, given their age and mannerisms thus far, seemed like excitable people. If they got worked up enough, he was pretty sure they'd cease to pay much attention to where their fight ended up at.

So keeping a close eye on them still remained as his objective. A good thing he was doing this personally and hadn't bothered calling in any of his men to assist, for if the fight got too out of hand, he doubted they'd have been able to avoid getting hurt in any potential crossfire.

And for the Trial, he needed as many able-bodied people as possible.

"Wish they knew that too…" he muttered as he continued to close in on the ruins, the tornado mercifully dissipating.

Seriously, was it not Jaune who asked of them to work together and build their forces? Did he not realize that he and Amber would be serving as two of humanity's heaviest hitters against Salem and her Grimm? If they weren't careful and got too injured, the only thing they would've ended up succeeding at is making more work and trouble for everyone!

For a moment, his frustration over the circumstances behind this situation outweighed his ebbing concern.

But only for a moment, for as he finally cleared the trees and came to a standstill on the very outskirts of the ruined area, all his thoughts just ceased to be.

Right there, standing close to the ruined temple was none other than Jaune Arc himself, the young man's dull blue eyes focused upwards on Amber, the Fall Maiden in question standing atop said ruined temple, her eyes glowing with an immense amount of power that could only be the work of her maiden power.

What could only be lightning crackled around her very form, destroying parts of the temple below without even meaning to. Combined with the serious gaze she cast upon Jaune below her, James could see why people mistook maidens for goddesses.

And then they both _moved_.

Amber flung herself off the temple and twirled through the air with a level of agility and grace that would've left even an expert gymnast in awe. Her hands lit up and shot forth several balls of pure flame at Jaune.

Jaune, in turn, had apparently anticipated this in advance, for he'd already started to weave by the time Amber had fired them. In between each fire ball he moved, unbothered by the obviously immense heat they had. He dashed forward so quickly thereafter that the ground itself seemed to erupt with every step he made.

But he hadn't been able to move quickly enough to reach Amber, it seemed to James, for the young woman landed on one of the temple walkways without issue. Then she stomped down hard enough for even James to hear it despite the distance and with his keen eyes, he could literally see the maiden's aura flow out of her and into the ground.

And as Jaune neared her, pillars of flame shot up, hot enough to outright _melt_ the thick stone they sprouted from.

Jaune once more weaved past them all, his movements so small however that if viewed from the side, it looked like he was actually passing through the fire pillars as if he were a ghost.

But as this happened, Amber too had charged forth, the bits of debris that the fire pillars had kicked up gathering instantly in her open right hand and form a short staff. However, before it could fully form, Jaune lightly jumped forward and arced his body so that he was parallel with the walkway and then threw a punch at it. His blow was so powerful that the entire walkway collapsed immediately and James could only watch as Amber's concentration was broken, the nearly formed staff breaking apart.

Yet the young woman hardly looked surprised. Hell, James would dare say she looked giddy for some reason. As he unconsciously jogged forth for a better look, he noted Amber's expression go from giddy to almost enraged as she let out a battle cry. Kicking off a small piece of the walkway in mid-air, she rammed into Jaune with impressive force and they both went sailing towards the nearby cliff that overlooked the temple.

To his amazement, Jaune merely shrugged off the pain of the hit, wrapped his left arm around Amber in such a way that it looked like he was somehow going to DDT her and then suddenly flipped around, striking the cliff feetfirst. Then he hefted Amber over his shoulder before suddenly throwing her downwards to where the cliff and ground meet. Gravity combined with the strength the young blond put into the throw made it impossible for the Fall Maiden to brace herself in time and she slammed into the ground hard enough to rock the entire temple, another part of it falling apart as a result.

By now, James had gotten across the open plain and near the front of the temple in time to see Jaune dig his feet into the cliff and start _running down it_ as if it were the ground! But this lasted for only a few milliseconds before he kicked off the cliff and slammed his feet into Amber right before she could start getting up.

The maiden cried out in pain and seemed to cough up blood despite how tough she was and for an instant, James considered taking action-.

-But then, Amber's eyes glowed even more brightly then before and the lightning that had crackled around her form before returned, this time concentrating into her right fist. She threw a punch at Jaune, whose form was crouched atop her and James could see the young man's eyes go wide with shock and even worry, to the point where he tried to jump back.

But he wasn't quite fast enough and Amber's lightning enhanced fist struck him in the worst way possible.

On pure instinct, James shifted his posture to cover his crotch, but this didn't stop him from wincing as he watched Jaune get struck right in the jewels. Even Amber looked aghast as her fist made contact.

But Jaune, despite the expression of genuine pain on his face, only ended up staggering back a few feet in a bent over posture and in the span of several seconds seemed to already start overcoming the pain and stand up straight again. This was an action that automatically made James start to respect him much more than before, if only because if anyone else – man _or_ woman – had been struck there by such a blow, they likely would've died from the figurative and literal shock, and that was assuming they would have even been physically tough enough to not outright die from the hit in the first place.

To his further amazement, Amber got up whilst massaging her fist, the same one she'd struck with just now all the while she briefly sported a look of mild pain and shock. Holy hell, just how tough was Jaune?!

Whatever mild pain Amber's hand had just experienced, however, it wasn't enough to occupy her for long and the woman decided to go for a mid-range attack by manipulating the wind to pick up some random pieces of debris that then pelted Jaune, still recovering despite his standing, hard enough to knock him onto his back.

Jaune rolled with it and landed back on his feet in a second, but that had given Amber enough time to finally form two short staffs, each one easily the length of an average sword when held in the young woman's hands.

James watched as Amber blitzed Jaune, hitting him across the shoulder with the makeshift weapon in her left hand before following it up with a hit from the other, this second blow hitting Jaune hard on the very side of his forehead.

The young blond stumbled but managed to recover in time block the third and fourth blows with his elbows, the stone that formed the weapons chipping ever so slightly as they were guarded against. Amber remained unfazed and simply extended her left leg out behind Jaune's right knee and tried to trip him up, only for the young man to raise said leg over Amber's just before it connected.

Then with a surprising swiftness that James had to admit took even him a bit by surprise, Jaune went low and swept Amber's legs out from under her with the very same leg the woman herself had tried to hit. A yelp could be heard coming from Amber, but she bent and did a handstand to keep from hitting the ground and promptly spun in place with her legs sticking out. Had Jaune stood back up – something he'd clearly been about to do just now – her legs would've smacked him right in the chest, but the blond had been quick enough to remain low and skip back a few feet.

The maiden ceased her spin and bent in such a way as to place her feet on the ground before her and then right herself, already swinging one of her makeshift weapons downwards at Jaune. Said blond raised his arm in time to block it, but the strength of the blow was still able to knock him onto his back. A wild kick ended up preventing Amber from delivering a follow-up blow and this gave Jaune just enough of a respite to roll back and up onto his feet and kick at the ground, his blow ripping a man-sized chunk out of it and sending it flying at Amber.

The young woman jumped a little bit to her left, twisting her body to the side to allow the chunk of earth to miss her by inches and then wasted no time in turning back around to charge forward.

But Jaune had already reached her first, his right fist shooting directly towards her face. James was impressed at how quickly Amber assessed the situation just before tilting her head to the right, Jaune's fist grazing her cheek just lightly enough to seem like a complete miss yet closely enough for James to note Ambers aura momentarily glow as it tried to soften whatever hit she just took.

Then the Fall Maiden yelped and the Atlas general could only gape when she was suddenly picked up and sent flying tens of yards up into the air and already covering a distance of a dozen meters.

It took the general a few seconds to figure out what had happened just now and it left him somewhat stunned – Jaune had opened up his attacking fist at the last possible instant to grab Amber's hair and throw her.

That… was honestly pretty impressive. It takes speed and skill to pull off such a last-ditch maneuver since Jaune would've had to grab accurately at Amber's hair or else he'd have succeeded in only pulling out a few loose strands. Not to mention his strength too; throwing a person of any size like that wasn't exactly the easiest thing to pull off when their posture was off, not unless they possessed a high level of strength to make up for the difference.

Alas, Jaune's wild throw also succeeded in keeping him from regaining his balance for a second or two and that allowed enough time for Amber to land on her back, get up and already start to prepare her response to the move just now.

Pieces of earth rose up from the ground and were added onto her two weapons as she held them close together, forming a staff that was just a little longer than what was considered the norm.

Spinning the newly formed staff in place to test its weight, James spotted a satisfied smirk on Amber's face just before she swung it with both arms, generating a good deal of air pressure but hardly enough to harm Jaune, let alone from so far away.

However, Amber then activated her maiden power, her eyes glowing with energy as the air pressure she'd generated suddenly gained a lot more strength, all while the 'size' of it seemed to shrink and condense to the point it looked genuinely visible to the naked eye.

With a speed comparable to lightning, this enhanced air pressure shot forth at a mildly surprised Jaune, who was already jumping directly over it.

James thought that had been a bad move even before Jaune had fully leapt into the air, but his opinion of how bad a move this had been solidified when the air pressure struck the cliff behind Jaune and practically exploded. By God, Amber had essentially made an air cannon, one with tremendous power as Jaune, even though he'd been several yards away from the point of impact, got blown away much further than he'd been intending to jump, smashing through one of the few pillars that had remained standing after all this time.

Amber wasn't done just yet it would, for she levitated up into the air and two things began to simultaneously occur. First, a small tornado suddenly formed from the ground up, catching Jaune in the process. Secondly, a relatively small storm cloud formed in the sky far up above, blocking out the sun and therefore rendering the entire area seemingly dull in color as the light of the sun was cut off.

That was when one of the most massive bolts of lightning James had ever seen or heard of was shot down from the cloud, its movement heralded by a deafening thunder clap just a millisecond prior to its appearance.

And it went straight for Jaune.

All James could see just before it struck its unfortunate target was the very tip of the lightning bolt aiming dead center for Jaune's chest… and considering the sheer size of it, what this really meant was that Jaune would be completely enveloped by it. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened, the lightning bolt's blinding light making it impossible for the general to see even as it blasted Jaune straight down the tornado and towards the ground.

The tornado itself seemed to invert itself, now taking form around the lightning bolt and all but ripping away at Jaune before he finally struck the ground.

What an impact it was too, cracks forming for meters on end as the young blond was blasted more than ten feet _under_ the surface, the remains of the temple falling apart for good as the whole area shook with all the violence of a small yet highly intense earthquake. It took James had to keep from falling onto his butt.

He continued to look, though, seeing the wind and lightning disperse to reveal the sun once more in the sky. As sunlight reappeared and covered the area in its brilliance once more, James saw Amber break out into a sweat and start panting as she bent forward and placed her hands on her knees. The staff she was just barely holding onto seemed to start falling apart as well as the power used to form and maintain it wavered.

As powerful as she clearly was, it seemed that using her maiden power in such ways takes a lot out of her.

A loud groan grabbed her attention, however, as well as James'. Amber ceased her panting, stood up and slowly began to make her way towards the hole her attack had ultimately formed. She looked a little worried now. "J-Jaune? You alright?" James could hear her say from her in the wake of how dead silent things seemed to be right now.

In what could only be a response to her brief call of concern, as Amber neared the hole, two hands suddenly burst from the ground directly beneath and latched onto both legs. Amber let out a startled cry just before she was quickly pulled under.

Stunned, James immediately started to charge forward to see if he could grab the woman out of the ground, but before he could even cover a few feet, he stopped as he heard once more the sounds of fighting occurring right beneath his feet.

Shocked, he could only look to the ground and try to detect where exactly Amber and Jaune were located at. But judging by the sounds of punches and battle cries being let loose, they were moving around underground – "but how, though?" James wanted to ask – far too quickly for him to get a proper lock on.

One second, they were making a small portion of the ground burst open a few yards to his seven o'clock and then the next second, they were directly behind him, making the equivalent of a sink hole occur, one that forced James to stumble forward a bit to avoid falling in.

More than halfway tempted to grab his gun and start blasting at the ground until those two were exposed, James could only follow the chaotic sounds with increasing accuracy.

Just when he felt it was high damn time to forcibly put an end to this, the ground erupted just six feet away from him on his right and he turned just in the nick of time to see Amber and Jaune go flying out of the ground, practically latched onto one another in a fierce grapple. Even as they struck the ground and went tumbling closer to the forest, they seemed intent on continuing their 'spar.'

Jaune was trying to get Amber in an armlock, but the girl swiftly broke out and bumped her side into his own, sending him rolling a bit just long enough for her to get on top of him and attempted to throw a punch.

But the blond easily caught her blow and reached out to grab a hold of her other hand with a tight grip.

The two of them reared their heads back, ready to freaking _headbutt_ each other-.

-And that was when James decided enough was enough.

Having withdrawn her gun, he fired two quick shots into the air.

It was rather comical to see just how quickly the two stopped what they were doing, the two turning their heads in his direction in perfect unison. And oh, how surprised they were to see him.

"G-General?!" Jaune stuttered out, his eyes wide. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well," James began, only to pause for a second as his eyes roamed over their positions and current state. "Originally, I came out here to make sure things didn't get too carried away with your spar. On that front, I believe I somewhat failed."

He motioned with his firearm first towards the forest, a clear-cut path of destruction leading to this area before then motioning to the ruins behind him, which frankly no longer could be considered ruins due to being complete rubble now.

"…Whoops," Amber could only say sheepishly, an apologetic smile on her face.

"Whoops indeed…" James muttered as he massaged his forehead. "While the destruction in and of itself isn't too big a deal given all of the initiations held here over the years, you two certainly risked being exposed to the students. And the absolute last thing we need is word of the maiden's existence getting around, even if they wouldn't have known what you are per say," he said to Amber in a flat tone.

She winced ever so slightly at that, making James feel somewhat bad. Nonetheless, at least he'd brought his concern to her attention, even if it was well after the fact. By now, students would have no doubt seen the destruction, albeit from a distance, and it'd only be a matter of time before the rumor mill did its work.

If he was lucky, rumors would get out of hand and keep students and others from discovering the truth too early.

In any case, for all of his troubles, he might as well take this moment to amuse himself somewhat. "Of course, it also wouldn't do to have any kind of scandal on hand right now, especially considering your surprising popularity, Arc. Seems to me like the students here like to gossip about you enough as it is. Giving them more ammo doesn't seem very smart of you."

"Huh?" was the intelligent response Jaune gave him.

By this point, Amber seemed to actually look at the position she and Jaune were in. James could see her piecing it together in the span of a split second:

There she was, sitting atop Jaune with their hands grasping one another in some way, their faces less than a foot away from each other. Her lightning/tornado combo had blasted Jaune's shirt completely off, thereby completely exposing his slim yet incredibly well-muscled upper body, some mild scratches and bruises here and there across his pecs and abs while the muscles in his arms seemed to tense and bulge with the lightest of movements. His shoes and socks had likewise been incinerated along with parts of his pants legs, showing off his calves and a part of his left thigh, equally as muscled as the rest of him.

On her part, her tumbling underground had gifted her with just as many scratches and bruises as well in addition to some torn clothes – modeled for the most part after her old clothes sans the brown vest and shoulder bracer – both of her slim shoulders exposed and the back of her blouse torn open to reveal the sensuous curve of her back as she all but leaned forward over Jaune in her seated position – directly atop a certain part of said blond man's lower body, it must be said – while the front was torn to show considerably more cleavage than before. Just the lightest of breaths would be enough to draw attention to the gentle and curvaceous swells of her chest. Part of the bottom of her blouse had been burned off somehow to reveal her toned stomach while her right pant leg had also been torn up, showing off a lithe and slender leg.

The disheveled look of her hair and reddened cheeks from her recent exertion (of battle) along with the light sheen of sweat that Jaune sported completed the compromising image.

A shrill and strangled sound rose up and out of Amber's throat, the young woman freezing in place all the while.

James merely grinned, his frustration over the situation mitigated a little by the fun he'd just poked.

As for Jaune, the blond could only blink stupidly, his 'blindness' allowing him enough sight to see people, but not enough to realize the situation he was currently in.

As James finally began to walk forward and help them up, more than eager to get them back to the academy, he could only dwell on the power and skill he'd seen the two exhibit just moments ago.

First chance he got after they had changed and rested, he wanted to talk to them and see where exactly they stand from a combat perspective. Cause if that was the sort of performance he could expect from them during the Trial, then they just might have a decent chance of overcoming this Trial after all. And maybe they might be willing to offer some training tips for his soldiers… or even outright train them if they had the time.

When they finally began to walk back, James was treated to this, however.

"Just what did he mean by that?" he heard Jaune ask Amber.

The maiden merely let out another brief and shrill sound, her face refusing to meet Jaune's own.

James could only smirk in amusement.

* * *

Meanwhile, at that exact same moment in one of the training rooms, Jeanne perked up.

Currently taking a little break before continuing with the team training, the leader of team JNPR could let out a surprised 'bwuh?!' just as she'd been taking a drink of water.

Her brother sense was tingling just now! Something of note was seriously going on!

So utterly (and comically) worried was she over this unknown development she was sensing, Jeanne failed to see Pyrrha suddenly space out, a small yet perverted smile on the redhead's face.

Somewhere out there, there was a magnificent sight of Jaune and here she was missing out on it, though its significance didn't seem lost on her somehow.

And so as Pyrrha's fantasizing continued from directly beside her, Jeanne remained completely oblivious to it and was instead much more focused now on finishing up this training as quickly as possible.

She had a brother to get to!

* * *

 **Heh, hope the ending is something you guys will find some amusement in because no matter how I tried to plan it out, I couldn't really make it as funny as I was picturing it in my mind. In any case, I certainly do hope the spar was something you all found entertaining, both in scale and in length. It'll serve as an indicator of the battles to come, or at least that is my intention.**

 **In any case, future battles will start to be just a bit more detailed than before and hopefully better written in terms of overall quality and specifics.**

 **Up next chapter will be some plot development too, so I also hope you will be looking forward to what I have planned for it!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	37. Chapter 37

Man, Marvel Studios rarely disappoints! I had some worries about Spider-man Homecoming, but it turned out that said fears were unfounded in my opinion – it was excellent! Props to the actors and director and the rest of the crew for delivering such high quality on virtually all fronts. Especially the villain, he was definitely one of the more developed antagonists seen so far in the MCU. Gives me a lot of hope and expectations now for Thanos, ha ha ha. Hope Avengers Infinity War can do the Mad Titan justice!

Also, Fate Grand Order has been a real blast for me so far. Finished up the prologue as well as the first two singularities and am now waiting for the developers to make the third one available. Been spending the time since then just leveling up all of my characters, but alas now I have the time-consuming challenge of getting the needed materials to ascend my main Servants to their 2nd/3rd levels. Wish me luck/patience because I believe I'll definitely need it, ha ha ha.

Now without any further ado, onto the chapter!

Chapter 37

 _….._

From the shadows, Tenebrous had been watching as team JNPR finished up their training for the morning. After the team began to leave the training area, it traveled through the shadows over to the other area where team RWBY had likewise been finishing up their training for the day.

To its bemusement, it seemed that the young silver eyed leader of the group had taken Jaune's words to heart and had all but worn herself completely out training thus far. Initially, both teams had been sparring and doing some exercises together, but during the last hour, they'd split up to focus on their own team-oriented things. During this time, Ruby had been discreetly trying to activate her silver eyes yet to no avail.

Tenebrous had hardly been expecting anything to come of the training, but it could feel something akin to admiration for Ruby's efforts. It hoped that in due time the girl would truly be able to awaken her eyes for good, but alas right now it was content to see that she was capable of at least redirecting some portion of her aura into her eyes. She was merely incapable of actually expending said aura as of now.

Perhaps some pointers would help the girl in the future? It'd have to ask Jaune to consider doing so on its behalf.

Speaking of its Apostle, Tenebrous had been able to sense what had occurred during the past several minutes, namely the battle that had occurred between Jaune and the Fall Maiden.

It had felt genuine surprise when it'd first sensed what was going on through its connection with Jaune, but it had calmed down upon remembering that the maiden was now an ally with them, meaning the possibility of its Apostle being actually killed was virtually nonexistent. From an intentional standpoint in any case.

The god couldn't help but feel something along the line of genuine pride now – Jaune had been able to hold his own quite well against Amber, an indication as to how much his power has grown thanks to their combined efforts.

It also meant that Jaune's body was likely almost ready to finally activate his semblance in full, to 'ascend' completely… but still, judging by what it was sensing through their connection, that was still a bit of a ways off. But Tenebrous was confident that Jaune would be fully ready by the time the Trial fully started, give or take some hours by that point.

Not quite ideal – it'd been their hope to get him fully ready before the Trial even started – but still it was perfectly acceptable and therefore no complaints could be raised.

Therefore, all that was left to truly focus on would be Ruby's continued development regarding her eyes as well as Jeanne's semblance. So long as these two girls can achieve what was needed of them, then when combined with the forces their other allies were gathering, overcoming the Trial with minimal casualties will become possible for good.

Still, the 'Power' knew that it couldn't afford to take things easy just yet.

Thanks to the Grimm serving as Salem's eyes and ears out here in this kingdom, there was a high possibility that the Apostle of the 'Mind' was to some extent aware of the forces now gathering against her. No doubt she would be making her own preparations as well to combat their might and this was the main concern it now had; Salem was powerful, yes, but she was also a versatile and ingenious individual, meaning it was what she could indirectly accomplish that made her truly dangerous.

The god would not be surprised in the slightest if the woman had already found another person or two to serve as her pawn now that Cinder and her two lackeys were figuratively out of the picture.

It would be prudent to try and see if this truly was the case, but this already posed a bit of a problem. For one thing, while it could travel to Salem's lands to see if she was engaging in any kind of contact with said possible new pawns, its presence would agitate the Grimm there and immediately alert her to its arrival. While it was certainly much more powerful than her, Salem herself was no slouch and her cunning would definitely supplement her power.

That, and it couldn't afford to even accidentally kill her lest the problem it and Jaune spoke of to the others would come into play and end up making things far worse. And Salem would know that and likely goad it into potentially killing her. She was that kind of person.

Plus there was no guarantee it would discover much about any new pawns in the first place. So even it could successfully get in and out of her lands without a hassle, there was a likely possibility that it'd be for nothing.

Combined with the fact it still needed to ensure Salem didn't try to go after either team RWBY or JNPR along with potentially speeding up Jaune's process a bit more, going around looking for any new threats was currently impractical anyways.

Oh well. In all honesty, it wasn't too big a problem, it would imagine. While Salem could certainly have found new pawns, the woman was also just fickle enough to prepare her own forces and leave things be. It was certainly a toss-up, but it was one it was willing to take for now, at least until something came along to prove otherwise.

For now, however, it ought to focus on retreating just a little bit – teams JNPR and RWBY had met up in the hallway just now as they all headed back to shower and change before starting their day in earnest. And the god could see the B of team RWBY perk up just a bit, Blake Belladonna's hidden cat ears twitching ever so slightly in its direction.

Impressive in a way. It hadn't been expecting anyone to notice it, not in any substantial way. Yet it seemed like Blake's senses were just a bit sharper than it'd been expecting, even if it had taken her this long to seemingly detect it.

It'd be best not to let itself be detected too much lest it make its job of watching them that much harder. For now, it will draw back until both teams left for Vale.

So as silently as it'd always been, Tenebrous slipped away into the darkness.

* * *

Blake put up a calm expression even as her heart raced.

After the amount of training she'd just put in alongside her friends, she'd figured she was too tired now to be able to feel much of anything now until she fully recovered her energy. That was something she doubted wouldn't be happening well until tonight considering the students were once again going to be heading into the city to assist one final time in reconstructing things, which certainly makes for a workout all on its own.

But she'd been proven wrong, quite horribly.

It'd been slight, ridiculously so, but just now she'd simply 'felt' like something was watching them all, something that nearly made her cat ears go into overdrive in terms of twitching. For sure, it made all the hairs on her body stand straight up and even made her break out into even more of a sweat.

Thankfully the others didn't seem to notice this given that they were all just as tired and sweaty too – Pyrrha did seem a bit more winded for some reason, with a whole-body flush to boot – so her reaction didn't stand out much.

However, that only made her much more worried. Just what had been following them that only she had apparently noticed? Hell, for that matter, just how long had it been following them?

Needless to say, she wasn't feeling quite as tired anymore as adrenaline hit her with all the suddenness of a bomb spontaneously going off.

A part of her had felt tempted to excuse herself and try following the unknown entity as she detected its departure, but she reigned in this desire as her reasoning immediately returned, telling her that finding a way to hunt it down would be impossible.

For once, she felt her otherwise reasoning and logical mind could go screw itself as emotion was currently getting the better of her – whatever that had just been had felt absurdly dangerous to her somehow, enough to make her want to flee as far as possible and attack it with everything she had in equal measure.

Barely even paying attention to the conversation her friends were having with team JNPR, Blake turned ever so slightly as if in hope that she might spot some kind of trail.

To her unsettlement, there was none.

Unaware of it, at least on a conscious level, her walking pace sped up just a bit.

She suddenly wasn't feeling very safe here.

* * *

Amber let out a sigh of relief. After having returned to Beacon alongside Jaune and Ironwood, she and the former had stopped by their respective rooms to change into some fresh clothes before meeting back up with the general, who'd all but demanded to know about the spar in as much detail as possible.

If she was being honest with herself, the general's attitude tended to rub her the wrong way. While she could admire his drive to protect the people of Remnant, he could certainly afford to be just a bit less paranoid and demanding.

In any case, she and Jaune had explained the reasoning behind the spar to the general and he'd seemed appeased. Well, given that Ozpin had also been waiting for their return and had been standing vigil in the back of the room in silence as Ironwood had asked away, perhaps he'd only looked appeased because of the tired look the Beacon headmaster had been shooting him the whole time.

Oh well, point is, their little meeting – a 'debriefing' the general had actually called it – was over and done with, she and Jaune were walking alongside one another, no particular destination in mind beyond her not wanting to head back to her room for the day.

She'd like to continue exploring the campus, thank you very much.

And it was on this note, that she was suddenly feeling hyperaware. Namely of the fact that it was just her and Jaune all alone in these hallways, the students having left for Vale about a half hour ago during their 'debriefing' it would seem.

Their spar from barely forty-five minutes ago still fresh in her mind especially after recounting it for Ironwood's and Ozpin's listening pleasure, she couldn't help but recall quite vividly the positions she and Jaune had ended up in at the end of the spar – and immediately she found herself blushing.

Really now, just what had been the odds of that happening?

She was finding herself feeling rather grateful that Jaune's Aura Vision can only show him so much of a person's appearance or else he likely would've gotten embarrassed too and that would've only made her feel even more embarrassed.

Why? Hell if she knows!

"So…"

Jaune suddenly beginning to speak nearly made her jump out of her skin. "Y-Yeah?" she replied a little too quickly.

The blond young man scratched the back of his head. "Uh, I just hope our spar getting so rough doesn't really change anything between us."

Amber literally stopped in place and stared at him. His words had genuinely amazed her. Here was a guy who in the midst of a fight, even if it was simply a spar, had been a truly fierce fighter yet outside of it, he reverts back to the somewhat dorky guy he was before.

The contrast bordered on surreal.

So perhaps she couldn't quite be blamed for laughing a little now. She slapped him on the back of his right shoulder lightly. "Seriously? It'll take a lot more than that to make things tense!"

Jaune's small yet bright smile was enough to make her heart start acting up in a way she couldn't immediately identify. "I see. That's great!" He paused as he then seemed to think of something. "And if you don't mind me saying, you really fought well. Way better than you said you have fought against those three."

Ah, right.

Some time ago, Amber had sat Jaune, Ironwood, Ozpin, and Glynda down to explain in detail the ambush Cinder Fall and her two cronies had set for her. As a result, they all had likely gotten a good read on her fighting capabilities from back then outside of her maiden power. So such a comment from Jaune wasn't too surprising.

"Mhm. I made sure to learn from my mistakes as much as possible," Amber said with a good deal of steel in her voice.

Thinking back to that day, she really had fought sloppily.

Not once had she bothered to try and lead the three to another area where she might have had a better advantage nor did she attempt to deliver any serious or even killing blows initially. Not only that, but she'd also made the mistake of using her maiden power as a last resort, when in hindsight it had been obvious that those three had already known she was the Fall Maiden from the start. Therefore, she should've fought with full power from the start rather than having let them pick away at her like she had.

And as if to add further insult to (former) injury, when she had finally bothered to use the Fall Maiden power back then, she'd simply levitated in place and had thrown a bunch of wide spread attacks at them. The power and speed of her attacks may have kept the two cronies at bay, but having simply levitated a dozen feet up in the air in the middle of a freaking _open area_ had left her completely vulnerable to that thieving bitch's arrow.

She could've used her maiden power to supercharge her staff and deliver one decisive blow to each foe back then, ending the fight in a matter of milliseconds. She could've made a smokescreen before launching her attacks or flown to an area where dodging her wide spread attacks would've been much more difficult, like the thick forest that she'd past through at the time literally _a minute_ before the ambush had occurred. The trees there would've served as big time obstacles for those three if they'd been forced to dodge blows from her in that area.

Instead, she'd held back and had unintentionally let those three set the pace of the fight and it had ended up with half of her power being stolen and her coma.

No way in hell she was going to let something like occur ever again.

That was why she'd fought so differently against Jaune during their spar. All those mistakes she'd made, she more than tried to make up for.

She'd fought him in a fairly thick forest. She'd supercharged her weapon as much as possible. She'd flown over the area and launched concentrated long-range attacks. When she'd used big moves, she'd followed the adage of 'go big or go home,' having come up with attacks that she knew for a fact those three punks never would've been able to dodge or counter in any significant way. She'd also fought with every ounce of concentration, strength, and speed she possessed, trying to set the pace for the spar rather than the other way around.

She liked to think that despite their spar ending in a tie, she'd been reasonably successful in achieving her self-made goals.

Something that Jaune appeared to agree on. "Heh, you sure did. Those attacks really stung," he commented before lightly chuckling. As if to emphasize his point, he rotated his arm at the shoulder and winced ever so slightly in genuine pain.

That made her chuckle a little as well. "It helped that I had such a challenging sparring partner." And oh did she mean every word there.

Jaune had been a truly tough opponent. He may have been restricted purely to unarmed combat barring the few times he'd thrown things at her, but that sure hadn't made him any less dangerous. When accounting for his physical capabilities too, he'd been almost a bit too much for her to handle up close, for while she'd held the advantage in pure skill and experience, it hadn't been by much and that had allowed Jaune's superior strength and endurance to nearly cost her several times.

Now that she thought of it, considering the sheer power of the attacks she hit him with towards the end of their spar, it was pretty damn amazing just how little damage he'd ended up taking. Even when considering the cushion-like effect aura provides, Jaune had ultimately walked away from their spar with only minor injuries whilst his clothes had taken the brunt of the damage, having left him to walk back in quite the tattered state.

…Great, now that she'd gone and thought that, she was remembering vividly seeing him without his shirt and the like on their walk back.

The urge to smack herself to be rid of these images was strong, but she withheld from actually doing so.

"That's very kind of you to say," Jaune then said, completely oblivious to her thoughts right now. "Though if the general hadn't shown up when he had, I'm pretty sure I'd have eventually lost. Goes to show just how powerful you really are."

At that, Amber could only blink. "That really what you think? Because I feel like I could say the same about you – had you landed just a few more hits on me, I probably would've keeled over for good!"

Jaune shook his head, adopting a serious and thoughtful expression that left the maiden feeling thrown for a loop. "Maybe so, but hitting you would've been a serious challenge after that. We both may have been getting a good feel for how we fought, but you inherently have far more attack options available to you. Eventually, your greater attack range and versatility would've pounded me into the ground."

"I don't know about that. I mean, I was practically running on empty by the end there, just a little bit. Using those big moves require a lot of concentration and a good deal of my own aura to pull off. Your hits also wore down my aura pretty quickly too." She narrowed her eyes a little, literally seeing the blond formulating some counter-response in his head. She poked a finger into his arm firmly. "Now don't go trying to downplay anything on your part or anything. Just accept the fact that it really could've gone either way and leave it at that."

"…Okay," Jaune said with a small and sheepish smile.

"Ha…" Amber shook her head. It was amazing as well just how focused and dangerous this guy could be in a fight while being such an unsure goof outside of the battlefield. It was enough to make her feel a genuine sense of disbelief regarding it all, but in a humorous sort of way. Enough to want to chuckle, really. "You're rather hopeless in a way, you know that?"

"I try at least, right?" Jaune replied in good humor.

"Keep trying then, maybe you'll actually get better at it."

That brought out a good laugh from both of them as they continued their aimless trek. With all the students having upped and gone to Vale, the campus was feeling extremely quiet yet peaceful. This allowed Beacon's inherent majesty as a castle-esque structure to really stand out now amidst the surrounding greenery from the forest while the cliffs overlooked the sea.

Ah, truly it was a beautiful sight to take in now that Amber had the time and right circumstances to admire it.

"But still…" Jaune began, looking thoughtful once more. "This spar sure showed me just how much I've grown in power. And how much more I need to grow."

Amber's right eyebrow quirked up. "Oh?" Well, this sounded interesting. "How so?"

Jaune's dull blue eyes shot up as he appeared to think on how to explain it. "Well, remember our conversation about me being Tenebrous' Apostle?"

Amber nodded.

"Okay, so as his Apostle, I apparently have a lot of potential within me, so much so that when I first had my aura unlocked way back then, my parents had only been able to unlock a very small portion of it. Furthermore, due to me being the Apostle of the 'Power,' it's always been required of me to train far, far, _far_ harder than I originally did in order to fully push my limits and achieve results. And as I started to get said results, well pushing my limits started to get increasingly difficult." How Jaune managed to say all that in one smooth breath was honestly pretty impressive.

Amber digested those words and hummed as she thought on them. "Hmm, okay, I can understand that. so how did you go about achieving more results after that?" Judging by his words, it seemed like conventional training was no longer quite going to cut it.

"Tenebrous merely told me to focus on sharpening my skills and 'merely' keeping in shape. He also asked of me to spar whenever someone decent – his words, not mine – came along to push my skills. As for him, he figured out a way to manipulate my own aura into essentially breaking and repairing everything in my own body in order to continue strengthening it," Jaune explained. "Ripping and regenerating all of my muscles to make them stronger, breaking and healing my bones to make them tougher, even stimulating my own organs and even my very molecules to be tougher than before with every passing day… that's how we got around this training lull."

Amber's eyes had never felt so wide to her at that moment. She could certainly understand the logic behind it, but at the same time it just sounded insane. For one thing, the mere fact that the god was actually capable of manipulating aura like that was actually a little nerve-wracking, even if this likely only applied to Jaune due to him being its Apostle. But that it was willing to go to such an extent all for the sake of making him stronger… it was actually pretty damn scary.

"Wouldn't that have a good chance of killing you in the process?" she couldn't help but ask. "I mean, what you're talking about is essentially how this god is ripping your body apart on several different levels! Sure, it may be constantly repairing, but still just one misstep and you might actually be lucky if you died!"

At that, Jaune grimaced. At least he seemed to acknowledge this fact rather than merely shrug it off like he had with her comment about his lifepath having been laid out for him back then. "I'm well aware of that. Trust me, I really am. But it's honestly the only way now to make myself stronger consistently in order to put an end to Salem and her plans for good. And in order to 'ascend' as Tenebrous puts it."

"Ascend?" Amber almost dreaded to hear the answer as soon as she'd asked.

"…All this time, I could count the number of times I've ever really used my semblance. And as it turns out, it's special. Namely, in that I've never fully activated it. Apparently, doing so would end up making me incredibly powerful and even some kind of new being – again, quoting Tenebrous, not myself – but at a cost."

"What kind of cost?"

"One that could possibly be avoided if my body becomes strong enough, according to my friend," Jaune remarked. "The thing is, as time goes on, more and more of my innate aura becomes available to me and once it's all fully unlocked, my semblance will activate in full too. So my body's growth is working on two deadlines – the Trial and my aura being fully unlocked. Ironically, the more it's stimulated in order to strengthen my body, the more its unlocking is sped up."

Once again, it seems like Jaune likes to rather casually drop bombshells. Some seriously unexpected bombshells.

Amber looked out to the scenery all around them as they walked out in the open across the campus, but the sight no longer filled her with peaceful feelings.

Going by what the young man had just said, his quest to get stronger was absolutely necessary not only to help repel the Grimm and defeat Salem, but to also survive whatever sort of fate is evidently awaiting him. And yet in doing so, he's also speeding up the process too.

What a catch-22.

"And once more, you're okay with all of this?" She tried not to sound harsh when she said this, but the rather light and thoughtful tone in which he'd spoken had riled her up a bit.

To her surprise, his expression darkened considerably. Calling his expression 'upset' or 'forlorn' would be a major stretch, but at any rate it certainly wouldn't be wrong to say that he was bothered.

"Of course, I'm worried about it," he immediately replied, grimacing as he did so. "While I trust my friend when he says I'll live either way, the possibility that I might no longer be able to interact with others like before just…" He trailed off as a deep frown settled on his face. For the first time whilst discussing this kind of thing with her, he looked genuinely unsettled.

"…Sorry," the Fall Maiden couldn't help but say. While their conversations on this kind of subject were few in number so far, she'd gotten used to how personally unbothered the blond man had looked and acted, having always simply been focused on the goal of stopping Salem at the seeming expense of his own thoughts on the matter.

"It's alright…" Jaune said after a moment, visibly composing himself. He then held up a hand and appeared to look at it.

As he did so, Amber felt a need to ask another question but held back. She'd just suddenly felt curious… when he looked at himself, just what exactly did his Aura Vision show him? Was it simply his own aura he saw? Or was there a small possibility of him seeing something else?

"It's ultimately something I try not to think about too much… but every now and then, I can do nothing but think."

Amber could only remain silent in the wake of such a statement. She was starting to feel awkward. This definitely hadn't turned out the way she had thought it would and now she was feeling bad for bringing it up at all.

"Well," she began. "Considering everything else your friend had said so far was pretty spot on, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, after all."

This was little more than just comforting words, haphazardly thought up and strung together in an attempt to cheer up the now troubled blond.

And Jaune could evidently tell this was the case for his resulting chuckle was oddly sad before he smiled softly. "Thanks."

Despite her words just now along with everything that has occurred since her awakening from her coma, saying that she fully trusted the god known to them as Tenebrous would be a little too generous. As such, her own trust in the god's words was rather fickle still, even if Jaune was the one explaining it all to her afterwards. This was something Jaune himself was aware of, meaning he knew that her words just now were rather half-hearted.

So his grateful smile just now hurt Amber's heart rather than heal it. All things considered, Jaune was really just a guy trying to do his best, but here she was unable to help him out all that much.

She tried not to squirm at the sense of failure she was now feeling. "…You have things pretty rough. Unconventionally so," she couldn't help but say.

"I guess so." Jaune admitted this in a lighter tone than before, showing that he was at least cheering up a little. So maybe she hadn't quite failed after all. "If nothing else, my life certainly isn't dull."

At that, the Fall Maiden snorted. "Couldn't be more right about that even if you tried."

That got a bit of a laugh out of the two of them, enough so as to dispel the tense and saddening atmosphere that had existed just now.

Continuing their trek and trying to switch topics now to something much lighter, the two proceeded to spend the next few hours together.

* * *

Salem let out a pleased hum.

Seated within her private quarters while some of her Grimm patrolled the rest of her castle, the Apostle turned and peered out the window. Out here in her land, the broken moon was always so visible thanks to how distorted the sky was in this region.

Reaching a hand out as if to grasp it, a cruel smile made its way onto her face.

Through the connection she'd established with Adam, much to the fool's ignorance, she was able to sense something akin to triumph from the man. He must have finally made contact with the White Fang. Favorably so, if the degree of this emotion was anything to go by.

"Good," she muttered. It was about time her new pawn had finally done so. Once the inevitable talks proceed a bit more, she'll send some Grimm in order for him to demonstrate to the others what new advantages they'll now have… if only because she allows this.

Ah, ignorance was truly bliss on their part. If only they knew just how little difference there truly was between their so called 'Faunus race' and the rest of humanity. In any case, once she sends the promised Grimm to Adam, surely the members he's reaching out to will quickly be up in arms with him to attack Vale once more.

Just in time for the Trial, so long as Adam proves to be as influential as he promised.

A promise she was certain he would uphold without much issue, especially once he and the others see just what sort of Grimm they'll have at their side.

And with just a simple thought, one of these Grimm was summoned to her room right then and there.

Through the single window in her quarters, massive in size in order to fully display the light of the broken moon, came the Grimm, one most unusual.

Most unusual indeed.

Its body was that of an Alpha Beowulf, but the mere fact that it had _flown_ here in response to her summons should have been more than enough cause for concern for anyone else. For out of its back jutted massive and powerful wings, its 'feathers' more akin to bone spikes than actual feathers. The Grimm's face was also not quite normal for an Alpha Beowulf, with a sharp beak-like quality to its otherwise ordinary snout. Its arms were thinner and longer, but no less powerful as well.

These changes were due to her fusing together an Alpha Beowulf with a Gryphon.

While hardly the most beautiful Grimm around, with minimal characteristics of its second fused half aside from the aforementioned alterations showing, this new Grimm possessed the combined physical ability of both fused halves, making it much stronger and tougher and faster than one would otherwise assume.

And it was only one of many that she's made thus far thanks to her semblance, which was matter manipulation on an atomic level.

Her semblance had its fair share of limits, with her only being able to manipulate matter mainly through touch, though she could still manipulate the matter of a target so long as they were within ten yards of her person. In this case, however, the further away the intended target was from her, the more concentration was needed to succeed at whatever it was she wanted to do with it. Additionally, there was a size limit relative to herself, with anything – or anyone – smaller than her being easy for her to alter however she pleases, while those larger than her was more difficult depending on how big exactly the target was. In the case of things or creatures the size of Goliaths, manipulating their atoms could still be done to achieve virtually whatever she wanted, but the concentration level required leaves her rooted in place and would take several minutes, making it impractical at that size.

That being said, well, her semblance was still not something to be made light of. Had that arrogant man, Adam, been paying attention to the number of small Nevermores flying in and out of the room back then, he might have noticed there was one less Nevermore by the time he'd left, having used her semblance to nigh-instantly merge it with him when they'd shaken hands. And it was through the Grimm she'd merged with him that she was able to keep track of him like this.

That aside, she beckoned the fused Grimm forth and it reached out its altered face for her to lovingly stroke it, pleased by the masterpiece before her. One of her many masterpieces and only one of many more to come.

No doubt that traitor Ozpin and his allies were aware of the Trial to come thanks to the 'Power' and its Apostle. They were most likely preparing for it as much as possible… but only for the 'usual' Grimm. No way would any of them expect combined Grimm such as the one before her, which she's gone to considerable lengths to keep hidden for now, having them remain in the various caves and crevices found throughout her land.

With but another simple thought, she dismissed the fused Grimm and she watched as it flew off at impressive speeds back to its original spot.

Now she stood at the open window and looked down upon the rest of the Grimm that milled about the area, her mind running through all possible combinations she could make for the upcoming Trial.

As her mind ran through the various possibilities, her hands unconsciously balled up into fists.

Though she herself was somewhat unaware of it, she was most eager for the Trial to come, all so that she could not only accomplish her goal, but to also get her revenge after all this time.

Finally, Ozpin would pay for the past.

* * *

 **Hope the last section there has you all curious for what else I have in store! And that it was also written well too, of course, ha ha ha.**

 **Out of curiosity, did any of you have any idea as to what Salem's semblance was prior to this chapter? I'm eager to know, really! I know I had dropped virtually no hints regarding it before and that it certainly seems like a story-breaker power, but I do sincerely hope that the limitations listed in the chapter will alleviate that considerably.**

 **And of course, you can expect other characters to be just as OP in their own little/reasonable ways. I will offer no hints on these said ways, but I can certainly say that the climatic battles will be fun for me to write and hopefully just as fun for you guys to read!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	38. Chapter 38

Oh man, hard to believe it's already August! Sure didn't feel like until I actually took a look at my calendar. How the time flies! To think that in just a few more months, Thor Ragnarok and Justice League will be coming out! Heh to also think too that it's been roughly a year and a half since I first started this fic too. Yeesh, sure hope I don't end up stretching this out for too long – that just wouldn't be fair to you guys. Or to myself, now that I think of it.

Well, in any case, the final arc (for lack of a better word) will be commencing shortly. Hope you all will look forward to what I have prepared!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 38

Never before could Adam recall a time he's felt this… elated, he supposed the word for it was. He's felt anticipation and subsequent triumph or righteous anger over the results of successful and failed operations respectively, but never elation in and of itself.

But then, he could hardly say there's ever been another time just like this.

It's been a little more than a week since he's returned to the White Fang and during that time period, he's managed to not only make contact with the individuals he believed he had to speak with, but Salem's promised Grimm had also quite conveniently showed up in time for him to make his arguments to his fellow members.

Needless to say, at the time, they all had been more than a little freaked out, even terrified upon seeing the Grimm that had oh so suddenly showed up on their figurative doorstep – and so silently too in spite of their base of operations being located in Faunus populated areas. Even Adam could admit to being a bit unnerved, for the several Grimm that had shown up looked like chaotic fusions between various types of Grimm that he and many others had encountered at one point or another.

Thankfully, during that time, the Grimm had been rather docile. More importantly, much like Salem had promised, they'd been obedient. To _him_. Adam had no idea how exactly his enigmatic and temporary ally had achieved such a thing, but he hadn't been about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

In any case, using his authority over these new(?) Grimm had certainly helped convince many others within the White Fang that they now had an advantage over the human infested kingdoms and had done wonder for garnering the support and resources he'd need to launch a proper full-scale attack.

For all intents and purposes, the White Fang, at least a handful of factions, would essentially be starting a war with Vale. With these several new Grimm and many more of a similar type lying elsewhere in wait, they would now have the numbers and firepower to pose a pretty decent threat, at least enough of a threat to take down the very city of Vale.

Adam couldn't help but smile darkly at that particular thought. Taking down the city alone would serve as good statement to the other kingdoms and all other human settlements in the world. The Faunus would no longer bow down to them; instead, they'll soon be the ones reigning supreme, with humanity itself serving as the foundation that they'll rebuild upon.

But now he was just getting a bit ahead of himself.

In any case, ever since his convincing arguments, he'd been put in charge of the entire attack and granted an even higher level of authority than he'd ever enjoyed before. Since then, he's been quite the busybody, constantly calling in favors and doing some heavy lifting himself to ensure that all of the people that are to be a part of the attack have all of the weaponry and equipment they need, be it weapons, Dust, armor or something else entirely.

As for the several Grimm that had shown up for him to demonstrate his control, they remained here at the current base well outside the city of Vale, remaining perched atop various trees that surrounded the base, their large forms surprisingly quiet as they waited for their next commands.

 _His_ commands.

Ha, even now the mere thought that he could command the Grimm felt surreal. He knew it certainly came with some kind of price – Salem didn't strike him as the type to give things away for free – but he was confident that in due time, he could find a way to avoid paying whatever price it was.

For now, however, he will make use of this gift and of even Salem herself in order to crush Vale under the White Fang's feet. Only when it is done will he take Salem permanently out of the equation.

He just hoped he'd have thought up a plan to do so by then. For he doubted killing her would be an easy task, even if he could somehow use the Grimm against her.

But before even that… he had a few other things he'd like to attend to very much.

Such as that blonde girl that had thrown off his group's march. More importantly, that green haired human that had humiliated him and his men.

And even more importantly than even that bastard…

"I know you're there in Vale, Blake…" he growled aloud, if only to himself. "Once I take care of those others, I'll be seeing you again very soon."

His dark promise made, he continued on with his work with renewed vigor.

It wouldn't be much longer now. Just another week to go before that pathetic festival started.

That'll be when they strike.

* * *

She wasn't exactly the most superstitious of people, but Blake was suddenly feeling like she was getting a bad omen of sorts. Bad enough to warrant the hairs on her body standing straight up.

It reminded her vaguely of the feeling she'd gotten the week prior, when that… that _thing_ had been watching her and her friends, but the feeling this time was nowhere near as strong.

Still didn't make it any less unnerving for her in the end. A bad feeling was a bad feeling, after all.

But so early in the day of all times? An odd time to be feeling this way, if nothing else.

"Come on, Blake! We'll be late for class!" Ruby proclaimed chipperly.

Near the end of last week, reconstruction in Vale had reached a point where the students were no longer really needed to help out, which meant that classes had resumed.

This meant all of them had to return to desperately trying to stay awake in professor Port's class, desperately trying to take notes in professor Oobleck's class before eventually ending the day with professor Goodwitch's and (assistant) professor Arc's combat class.

However, things had changed rather noticeably this time, something that everyone had taken note. Kind of hard not to considering just how big the change was.

Basically, the curriculum had been altered to be alternating between what could be called training day and lecture day, meaning for one whole day, they'd be training and receiving various tips from professors Goodwitch and Arc while the next day would be back to their usual classes such as Grimm Studies and History, with Combat class at the end of the day merely being used for spars to test where they now stand from a combat perspective.

As tired as this ended up leaving all of them due to how hard their combat instructors liked to drill them, a lot of the students certainly found it rewarding since it meant they could really sharpen up their skills in time for the Vytal Festival. That said, such a change was still a complete mystery to them all in terms of why it was done in the first place.

The faculty being so tight-lipped on the matter didn't exactly help either.

Personally, Blake felt that even most of the faculty didn't seem to know why this was done either, since she's spotted both Oobleck and Port looking a little confounded themselves the first few times the students asked them about it. That said, neither professor seemed to mind the change very much. Hell, they seemed almost excited by it for some reason, especially the ever-jolly Grimm Studies professor.

She wondered why.

"Come on, Blake! Come on!" Ruby said again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" she mumbled as she finally got dressed and headed out of the door, where her team leader had been poking her head from to check on her. Yang and Weiss had already gone on ahead to the class to get them a roomy enough spot to do their exercises in, otherwise they'd all be relegated to the corner, where room was sparse and where training accidents somehow took place far more often and easily.

"You've been rather… excitable lately," the cat Faunus couldn't help but comment as she finally exited their dorm, closing and locking the door behind her.

"Heh heh~ you think so?" Ruby replied, all but skipping alongside her.

"I know so," Blake said rather flatly, though she was certainly feeling amused too. Her friend here was just so childish sometimes that it hurt, but in a world like this, it did wonders for lifting others' moods sometimes. Well, not always the case with Weiss – too uptight still after all this time. Likely due to her being a heiress and all.

"So why have you been in such a good mood recently? And so determined too? Yang's been pestering you about that for a while already," Blake asked.

All last week, ever since their first training session alongside team JNPR, Ruby's been pretty chipper and it had prompted the girl's elder sister to bug her about it to no avail. Ruby had been remarkably quiet or evasive on the matter and Blake had seen firsthand how this had driven her partner nearly wild.

Hopefully she could get to the bottom of this herself, if only so that Yang could finally let the matter go and be at ease again. And of course, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little interested as well in Ruby's recent change in behavior.

Ruby fell silent a little at her words and looked as if she was pondering something. Then the girl laughed a little and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Heh, guess I've been a little secretive on that, huh?"

"By your standards? Yes." Blake walked at just a brisk enough pace to get to combat class on time this morning, but still just slow enough to hopefully allow enough time for Ruby to spill the beans. It really all depended on the girl.

"…Okay then." Ruby closed her eyes and with a thoughtful expression, she nodded to herself. "Well, you see, it all started with a conversation I had with Jaune."

At that, Blake became keenly self-aware of her pace suddenly stopping. But it lasted for only a split-second before she resumed walking. She was suddenly feeling much more alert for some reason and she focused her yellow eyes on Ruby intently. "Oh? Professor Arc? What exactly did you two talk about? Depending on what you say, I might have to send Yang after him."

Her last sentence there was merely a way to try and lighten up the mood before she let herself get carried away and make things too tense. She hoped the comment would help keep Ruby from suspecting her of fishing for too much info and also help the girl loosen up enough to tell her something.

"It was nothing like that, Blake!" Ruby exclaimed, a little red-faced from embarrassment. "We just talked about what I could be doing to really help out is all."

"Help out?"

"Mhm! He's got a real eye for talent or something – said there's a little something extra I can do that I can train to be an even better huntress!" Ruby proclaimed this with just the widest grin.

And yet…

If she looked close enough, it still seemed as if the girl was hiding something despite how boisterous she appeared to be acting right now.

"And what is this 'something?' Nothing dangerous, I'd hope," Blake commented.

"No, not dangerous at all! Well, not to us anyways…" Ruby trailed off, even looking away in the process. But when she looked back and no doubt saw the stern expression the B of team RWBY was wearing, she quickly added more to this. "Just to the Grimm! That's all it's dangerous too! Can't really tell you what is, though. Not just yet… but it'll be a trump card for sure once I get the hang of it!"

Blake couldn't stop herself from staring at the girl, perhaps even outright glaring if the way Ruby seemed ready to huddle up on herself was anything to go by.

To put her friend/leader at rest, she spoke evenly. "I see. I'll trust you to do just that then. But the second I and the others need to know about it, I expect you to tell us for sure."

"Got it!" Not even a little bit did Ruby try to hide her relief at not being lectured.

And while that was something usually best left up to Weiss or especially Yang to do, Blake will readily admit to wanting to lecture the girl quite strongly too. And for plenty of reasons.

There was whatever little secret she was currently hiding, sure, but in all honesty Blake kind of wanted Ruby to stay well away from Jaune Arc.

Despite how nice the young man had demonstrated himself to be overall, just something about his very presence seemed to inspire a great deal of uncertainty and suspicion within her. Even fear, to some extent. She didn't know why this was the case, but if her instincts were telling her that he was even remotely some kind of threat, then she was to act on this suspicion.

Was it ultimately unfair to the man? Yes, it was, she can't deny that. But her instincts had always served her well before so dismissing them now would be foolhardy.

That being said, to continue acting like this whenever the young man was so much as even mentioned was getting annoying even for her.

Perhaps it was time to finally put her fears to rest and actually confront the issue at hand with him.

She was getting tired of running away all the time as it is.

* * *

Ozpin took much more pleasure than he ever did simply walking the halls of his academy. After all of the duties, self-imposed or otherwise, he had weighing down on him, finally being done with them for the next several days felt unbelievably relieving.

Now to walk Beacon's halls without having to worry about yet another call to make or another form to sign off on, he was able to simply let his mind wander as he passively took in the sights around him.

It's been a bit of a late morning for him, having woken up a little later than he usually did after a good night's long rest and he could say with complete certainty that never before had he enjoyed the comfort of his bed so much.

It'd taken a lot of phone calls and a lot of time, but his efforts in coordinating with the headmasters of the other academies had finally seemed to come to an end as whatever preparations they've needed to make were more or less done.

All that was really left was whatever James had to deal with on his end of things, but alas that wasn't his problem right now.

Right now, his problem was just where could he find the largest gallon of coffee that the academy had to offer.

"Well… I'd certainly wish that was my only problem right now," Ozpin muttered. "Wouldn't you agree?"

He may be the only person in the hallways right now, what with classes having started a good half hour ago, but he was far from alone.

The red glows slowly appearing out of the nearest shadow as he rounded a corner proved this.

 _I see you've gotten used to me in a sense._

Tenebrous, 'God,' the 'Power,' as it was known by. To think that such an entity would be tailing him now of all times. Ozpin would be lying if he said such a thought didn't creep him out a bit, but he, Glynda, and a reluctant James knew quite well by now that this half of God was no threat. To them at least.

Still, the very fact it had chosen to follow him was odd in any case.

"I suppose you could say, I've gotten used to your… presence. Once I figured out what to look for in the shadows, spotting you in advance became just a bit easier. But not by much." He then paused, slowing in his steps almost unconsciously. "So may I ask what brings you to me? I'd have thought you'd be with Mr. Arc today during combat class."

 _Given the recent weather, it'd be rather odd for him to be wearing a 'coat.' So I decided to once more keep away from him. Something I'm sure the 'Faunus' students will be unknowingly grateful for._

Ah and there it went again. Every time it mentioned the very word Faunus, Ozpin and the others could literally hear the quotation marks around it. He'd asked why once a while back, but the Power hadn't been in a forthcoming mood.

"It is nearing a warmer season," Ozpin agreed. "But still, you seem to be skirting around the question. Why follow me in particular? I'd have imagined you'd be keeping vigil over Cinder Fall and her two comrades."

He, James, and Glynda had been informed of what had occurred that night little more than a week ago. Of how Tenebrous here had terrified the three criminals into submission. Since then, the three in question had gone about their business acting as proper students, though James had – naturally through small stealth drones and the like – caught them discussing and figuring out ways to leave the academy.

So far, James had yet to overhear or otherwise discover any plans of theirs to potentially harm the students or Vale, but he kept a vigilant watch over them, eager to arrest them and throw them all into the nearest high security cell the very instant they so much as eyeballed the bullhead landing pads.

Tenebrous here had been assisting in this surveillance over the past week or so in addition to whatever else it is that it does and judging by how skittish the three criminals had been acting as of late, it wouldn't surprise the headmaster one bit if the Power was spooking them here and there.

It felt somewhat cruel to be doing that, but given the crimes they now knew those three had committed along with the other crimes they've likely done as well, he found it hard to really sympathize with them. As it is, for now, they all were continuing to keep an eye on the three until James gave the go-ahead. Apparently, to hear the general tell of it over the past few days, he'd also been busy having his best engineers prepare a very special cell for the three criminals, a cell so fortified and secured that even if Cinder Fall had been at her best, even she would have found it impossible to escape from.

Or so James likes to say.

In any case, the cell was still being prepped and until then they could only watch over them and make sure they made no suspicious moves towards the rest of the academy.

But he was letting himself get off track…

"I'd hardly say I'm that interesting a fellow if you've been following me around for as long as I think you've been doing so," Ozpin added when he'd received no reply from his shadowy ally.

 _To the contrary, you're most interesting indeed given your history with Salem. Tell me, headmaster, are your allies – Glynda Goodwitch, James Ironwood and all the others – really aware of how you two know each other?_

As old and experienced as he was, the headmaster of Beacon couldn't quite suppress the flinch he suddenly developed.

"So you are aware of that," he murmured.

 _Well before Jaune was born, I'd made it a point to watch Salem from afar. While my intelligence had been severely lacking back then and still is even now, I can recall what I've seen. The two of you 'go way back' as Jaune would likely say. I can only remember some of it admittedly since my focus back then had been entirely on Salem's actions rather than that of those around her. Even then, it had mainly been my other half that had watched over her for the most part. But now that I truly try to think of it, I do believe I've seen you before, when you were younger, little more than a student yourself at the time._

Given how this entity generally acted, it had been almost frighteningly easy to forget just how ancient Tenebrous was and how much knowledge it has in spite of its supposed lack of intelligence, at least when it came to conscious thought back then.

Wielding his cane in his right hand, he couldn't quite keep himself from tightening his grip on it a little as memories from long ago slowly began to come back to him.

"Just what are you trying to get at then?" Ozpin tried to speak in as calm a manner as possible, but Tenebrous' words, spoken in that same distorted and almost emotionless tone as always, was starting to slowly grind away at his nerves.

 _I'm merely curious why you keep your former connection to her such a secret from the others. And why exactly you hadn't done anything at the time to prevent all this from even occurring in the first place._

Basically, the god was asking why. Why, eh? Such a simple question, so painfully simple. Yet no simple answer was forthcoming.

Instead all Ozpin could do was almost completely cease walking for a moment to collect his thoughts. Upon doing so, he began walking again, but there was certain edge to his otherwise simple actions, his entire body tensed up from a combination of regret and frustration.

Memories for long ago – decades – slowly started to creep to the very front of his mind with an intensity unlike anything he'd ever personally experienced.

…Long ago, he'd merely been a young man just like any other, self-confident and ambitious, eager to make his mark on the world. He'd been in school at the time, one not unlike Beacon though far from grand or majestic in stature or reputation.

…Salem had been a fellow student there too. More than that, the two of them had known each other for years even prior to that, having known each other since they were around ten years of age. By coincidence, they'd ended up attending the same schools, including the combat one upon them turning seventeen.

Ozpin recalled back then quite well. He'd been not unlike young Cardin Winchester, rather full of himself and more than assured in his combat capabilities… though he was much more well-read and intelligent than the leader of team CRDL, no offense to the young man himself. Salem on the other hand, well… despite the immense amount of potential she'd show on occasion, she'd always been his opposite in personality, always so unsure of herself and afraid of hurting others. If he had to compare her from back then to someone now, Ozpin could say she'd most resembled Velvet Scarlatina in personality.

She'd been just as smart as him, however, perhaps even more so and it was her innate tactical prowess and semblance to seemingly make people just knock out somehow that had secured her place in that combat school, whose name he was forgetting for some reason.

Even though the girl at the time hadn't wanted to go there. But alas, things had been far different back then compared to now – the Grimm had been so rampant back then and with the vicious scuffles between humans and Faunus, if one showed even a shred of combat prowess, attending a combat school was essentially mandatory.

This had been something Salem hadn't agreed with at all, though she hadn't put up much of a resistance, having been too shy and unsure to do so. He, on the other hand, had eagerly leapt at the chance. And as if by some hand of fate, the two of them had been assigned to the same team with him as the leader.

Oh, how dreadful he'd been, all but making his teammates march to the beat of his own drum back then. The sheer number of times he'd especially tried to make Salem 'into a true warrior' as he'd put it way back then had been so numerous, he couldn't even begin to guess the number anymore; her passivity had always been one trait he'd verbally put her down for…

Along with one other thing.

Oh, how could he have been so utterly _blind_ to it back then? For that matter, how could have anyone else been completely oblivious to it as well?

For as long as he'd known her during their early youth, in addition to having been such a passive person, Salem had also demonstrated an unnerving fascination with the Grimm, having always been unusually brave whenever an opportunity arose to get close to one. Such 'bravery' would've been praised by others, but what instead made this trait so negative was that the girl had always seemed to outright _admire_ those creatures of darkness. Ozpin could remember quite clearly the quiet yet almost desperate arguments Salem had made that the Grimm were so much more than simple beasts of darkness, that they held the potential to co-exist with humanity and Faunus alike if given the chance.

Such words at that time had been dismissed as complete drivel and had turned the masses against her. More than once, Salem had been called all sorts of horrible names, with 'Grimm lover' or 'beast sympathizer' being the absolute most tame of them all. People had bullied her, belittled her, and had even outright tried to seriously hurt her at those times.

And he'd done oh so little to prevent it all.

Oh sure, as her friend and leader, he'd defended her physically but that had really been it. Not once had he tried to comfort her after others talked her down so roughly. Not once had he tried to understand her fascination with the Grimm either. In fact, in this regard, he'd been no better than the others, having often mocked her hopes for coexistence as nothing more than fantasy of the highest order. He'd been as much of a tormentor to her as he'd been her friend and occasional 'savior.'

And then one day, it had all changed.

In hindsight, it was now pretty clear that had been the day when she started coming into her own as the Apostle of the 'Mind,' but back then he hadn't seen it that way.

The day she'd led him out into the nearby forest, saying she'd wanted to show him something. He never would have fathomed that 'something' actually being her calling out to a Grimm, an Ursa if he recalled correctly. It had actually responded to her call, having trudged out from the deeper part of the forest and stood there before her, acting so… so docile and almost even peaceful as Salem gently started stroking the side of its face, speaking soothing words as if it were some pet and a moment later speaking of her dreams for the future. And then she'd turned to look back at him excitedly, proclaiming all the while that her dream of coexistence hadn't been foolish after all.

If he could go back in time, he'd go back and stop himself from doing what he did at that time, which had been having ran as fast as he could to the headmaster of their school and telling him what Salem had been doing.

It had been that one action that had triggered what could only be called a witch-hunt. How could it have possibly been called anything else, when a mob of students and teachers had waited for Salem to return to school grounds and had proceeded to beat and drag her to the center of the town nearby? When they'd told the townspeople what she'd done and they all had started to hurl words of spite and hate and then stones at her?

Ah, but the worst part of it all, had been his whole reaction to this event back then. He'd expected the school to do something about Salem for having committed an act that was practically treason to the entire human race, but he hadn't been expecting such an intense reaction. And so he'd only stood on the sidelines the whole time, shocked and horrified by what they all had done to her.

And when they'd tied her to a pole and had started a great fire, all he'd done was numbly walk up to the front of the jeering crowd and stare in all-consuming horror as the flames started to consume his friend.

Ozpin's grip on his cane tightened dangerously more now as he vividly remembered the look Salem had shot him at that moment, how her once lovely features, normally so shy and sweet had warped into an expression of absolute betrayal, hurt and anger and hatred all mixed together and aimed at him back then, Salem having immediately figured out he'd been the one to tell….

… _Are you alright?_

The words of Tenebrous were enough to jolt Ozpin ever so slightly from his memories.

Looking briefly to his left, where Tenebrous' two red glows for eyes peered at him keenly from his own shadow on the wall, Ozpin could only shake his head in response.

"No," he said in a clipped tone of voice. "I can't say that I'm alright at all…."

For he was now remembering the final part of that terrible day, when Salem had, for lack of a better way to put it, broke.

When she'd been burning at the stake, she'd screamed at the top of her lungs, having produced a sound so horribly inhuman that the jeering crowd back then had fallen silent. And that had been when an explosion of an unknown nature had occurred, having originated from within Salem herself. Ozpin remembered well how said explosion had blown him back with enough force to knock him out for several minutes… and when he'd came to, all of the people that had gathered for Salem's burning had been utterly eradicated, not even their remains left. And off in the distance, throughout the rest of that long gone town, he had heard the screams of terror and agony as the remaining townspeople had been torn apart by the sudden appearance of Grimm.

But more than that, he could remember so well the look Salem had sported on her face as the flames that had almost completely consumed her had simply disappeared, her skin so eerily white and the sclera of her eyes pitch black with red irises.

' _This is all your fault, Ozpin!'_ he remembered her saying in a cold and quiet voice, her red eyes glaring directly at him with such an intensity that he had been frozen in fear at the time. _'…I hate you! With every fiber of my being! I curse you! To think that I had trusted you with my secret! And in response to it, you… you go and shatter my dream! Now one day, one day I will do the same to you. And to everyone else!'_

' _And it'll all be on your head.'_

Those had been the very last words she'd said to him before she'd taken off, having disappeared somewhere into the flames that had been burning the nearby buildings. And then that had been when he'd fallen unconscious back then, that time for a good long while.

"Damn it all." He couldn't help but mutter this in response to remembering all of this so vividly. He took a moment to take his glasses off and massage the areas around his eyes along with his forehead, the memories just now having almost caused him physical pain.

Back then, he'd had no idea of what had happened that day, but once more in hindsight, that must have been when the 'Mind' had come to Salem's aid, no doubt having wanted to save its Apostle… only to end up fully merged with her instead, with Salem running the show now. And those Grimm that had so promptly started tearing the town down must have responded to Salem's newly established will as their 'Mind.'

Ha, to think that this is how it all connects…

"I…" he began. "I'm hardly what you'd call a truly good or righteous man. Such a person might indeed have told the others about the past, tell them anything and everything needed to potentially give them an edge, something to exploit. But I'm no such person. To answer your original question, this is something I haven't told Glynda or James or anyone else because my connection to Salem is something I feel I must bear and repent for in silence. Besides, it's not as if knowing about it would help out much in our current situation. She hates me and has more than enough power and resources to express that sentiment violently. All we can do is oppose it when she tries to take out that hatred on the rest of Remnant."

His voice started off sounding rather feeble and quiet. But with every word spoken, his composure returned and by his final words, he was back to sounding like the decisive headmaster many believed him to be.

He gazed into the abyss before him and it gazed back at him, Tenebrous' red 'eyes' peering directly into his soul.

 _I see. I understand._

Ozpin let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. At least Tenebrous hadn't tried pushing the issue. He wasn't sure if he could handle a pushy god. "Glad to see you understand. Sorry if my unwillingness to share affects any of your plans too."

 _Hmm? Why are you apologizing? I'd merely been curious is all. I'll leave you to your walk now._

Ozpin twitched a little violently as the presence of the blackness faded away.

Well now, that had been rather anti-climatic. And now that he was feeling a little sour, a part of him was childishly wishing the Trial would end the same way and spare everyone a lot of grief.

This thought lasted for only a split second before the ugly memories assaulted him once more. His grip on his cane was now so strong that when he finally became aware of it, he was actually surprised he hadn't broken its grip.

Sighing, Ozpin peered out through the nearest window, his eyes looking to the beautiful horizon. But he found no beauty in it anymore, instead seeing the ashy and almost demonic sky that had appeared all those decades ago.

"To think you'd truly hate the world this much over my mistake…" he mumbled, thinking of the woman that had once upon a time been his friend.

He then let out a bitter chuckle; he really had made more mistakes than anyone else on the planet. He could only prepare and pray that his biggest mistake wouldn't cost humanity much.

* * *

Jaune did his best to keep from sweating. But he was finding that to be a pretty difficult thing to do.

Man, Blake Belladonna sure had one fierce glare! He had to wonder if anyone had ever told her that. Probably not, if he had to guess.

In any case, the teen in question had been eyeballing him most critically throughout the entire first hour of training, which he and Glynda were personally overseeing. Weapons training and tactics being set to occur later in the day, the first two hours of combat class were meant to be spent on purely physical training as well as the blindfold exercise that he'd come up with all that time ago.

He was rather proud to 'see' that the students had all come quite a ways since then. While it was going to be a while before all of this exercise really did improve their endurance and other abilities noticeably, they'd all come to learn how to better react using only their sense of hearing as opposed to how focused they'd been on sight prior to that.

While admittedly they were still months of training away from being truly proficient, Jaune was seriously hoping it would be enough for the upcoming Trial. After all, it was sometimes the smallest of things that could make the biggest of differences. If the students better knowing when and how to dodge an attack they couldn't see was said 'small thing,' then he'd be more than satisfied.

Now then, back on the current issue… well, if he had to sum it up as succinctly as possible, being looked upon so critically was kind of freaking him out.

Had he done something to personally piss her off? If so, then nothing was coming to mind.

This likely could only mean one thing then…

"Her 'Faunus' heritage," he muttered in as low a tone as possible, wishing to not be overheard.

"I'm sorry, did you say something, Jaune?" Glynda asked from her spot several feet away.

Jaune did well in not blushing from embarrassment. "Just reminding myself of something for later. Sorry," he said, hoping to just play it off.

He could 'see' Glynda's aura waver a bit, confusion positively rife within her. But then she let it go without another word and went back to observing the group of students before her.

Turning his own eyes to his own current group, Jaune tried not to be too obvious in eyeing Blake himself.

In immediate hindsight, he probably shouldn't have done so, for he saw her aura pulse from within her eyes as they met his own and he knew that she knew he was looking at her.

An all but microscopic nod was then performed by her and, feeling most confused now, it was all he could do to return the gesture.

Just what the hell had he suddenly acknowledged or agreed to?

Damn it all, now he was starting to overthink! Shaking his head, he averted his gaze from Blake to look at where his sister and her team were at. When he did, he could 'see' Jeanne's aura fluctuate with excitement and something akin to outright eagerness and she paused in the midst of her exercises to wave at him. Smiling, he waved back before motioning at her to keep going with her exercises.

Ah, his sister… come to think of it, he had to now wonder just how much longer it'd be before her own semblance would awaken. It's something the girl had been trying to awaken for quite a long time and the concern the girl felt over not discovering it was something he felt as well, but for different reasons, of course.

Thanks to Tenebrous, he had a pretty good idea of what her semblance exactly was and while it was hardly an offensive power like Ruby's silver eyes, it would definitely be a big boon for them.

After all, Jeanne was the perfect leader for others to rally behind, even if she hardly exhibited such traits outside of battle.

Time continued to pass by and along with it, the exercises performed by the students continued well until the two hour mark, at which point they were all exhausted.

Together with Glynda, he announced a forty five minute break, giving them plenty of time to go grab a quick and light bite to eat, drink plenty of water or simply spend the time resting up and cleaning their clothes a bit.

In any case, the students were dismissed from the arena for now. Glynda herself took off not even a minute after the students had left in order to go check on something. His sister had looked most tempted to stay behind and chat, something he really would've loved to do, but then her ever lively teammate Nora had dragged her off along with the rest of the team for a quick but tasty meal.

This left him rather alone in the arena.

Or so one would think in his place.

"Erm, you know weapons training isn't until later, right?" he said uncertainly.

For roughly several minutes after everyone else had left, a certain member from team RWBY had revealed herself to have stayed behind, emerging from the locker room. And had evidently made a quick trip to her weapons locker too if the way her own aura flowed into the sheathed blades she usually wielded were anything to go by.

Blake Belladonna was clearly quite fatigued after all of the exercises thus far, but as she stepped forward with her weapon, Gambol Shroud, still sheathed, Jaune's Aura Vision let him see she was clearly feeling a bit too stubborn right now to let said fatigue fully get to her.

"So you really did know I was there…" the usually quiet member of team RWBY said.

"Well, yeah," he answered sheepishly, not even knowing if it was an answer she'd even wanted. "So is there something I can help you with?" Rather than point out once more she was holding her weapon, he opted to instead try and play it cool.

It's not as if she was actually going to try attacking him with it, right? Right?

Blake stopped roughly seven feet away from him, a distance that he knew was roughly the range she preferred starting a battle from – he'd seen her spars often enough to note this.

"For the longest time," Blake began. "I've been more than a little suspicious of you. You just seem so off despite not ever actually doing anything to warrant it."

"…Okay? So just what are you trying to say here?" He couldn't help but reply like that, simply blinking dumbly in response initially to her words.

"Lack of reasonable suspicion aside, my instincts tell me constantly you're a threat… and my instincts have rarely failed me before," Blake continued.

Jaune had to bite his tongue from making an instant retort to that. From what he's learned about her from Ozpin over the course of the past week or so along with the backgrounds of various other students, he kind of doubted Blake was as on point as she believed she was on things.

"If that's the case, why haven't you attacked me then?" Ultimately, no point in trying to drag things out. So he decided to try getting straight to the point as quickly as possible.

"Because I have a lot to ask you and you have a lot of explaining to do." Blake raised her weapons ever so slightly. Despite the bravado, however, he could tell by her aura that she was quite nervous, afraid even. At least more so than she usually was whenever he was near her or other 'Faunus.' "Ruby mentioned to me just this morning that you and her had an interesting conversation. She was vague, but apparently it has to do with her being able to better fight against threats. Care to explain that?"

Jaune tried hard to hold back a sigh, but failed. While he could understand why and how things had ended up coming to this, the way Blake was currently acting was honestly rather irksome; she was letting those instincts of her rule her far too much, to the point where he was finding her to be just a little too overeager and demanding.

He was pretty sure that if his friend was here, even he, normally so unfeeling, would feel some measure of annoyance. Good thing he wasn't then.

In any case, Jaune felt it was high time he addressed this elephant in the room lest things like this continue. At this point in time, so close to the Trial, none of them could afford to be acting on such petty things.

"I'm willing to bet there's much more to this than just that," he stated, feeling unusually calm right now. "Let's just be completely honest here, or at least as much as the situation can allow. Tell me what it is you really want to know and let's go from there."

To his bemusement, Blake blinked. Apparently, she'd been expecting him to put up some measure of resistance, which would likely explain her having her weapons right now, her animosity aside.

But she recovered quickly enough.

And so, she began asking her questions.

* * *

 **Perhaps not quite the best note to end the chapter on, but if I'd gone on to write the whole scene I initially had in mind, this chapter would be a good several pages longer than it already is, something I wish to avoid to get this chapter up in a reasonable time. Hope you guys will understand.**

 **Also, I know that quite a few of you had been rather annoyed with how Blake has been acting towards Jaune throughout the fic, so it's my intention with the next chapter to clear the air and explain exactly why she's been acting this way.**

 **I can already imagine some of you not quite agreeing with what'll be revealed as being justifiable for her feelings towards Jaune, but that will be the point – for the upcoming truthbomb to be a thing of discussion and varying opinions, just like how a lot of other things in fiction are like, really.**

 **In any case though, I do sincerely hope that you all are still enjoying this fic and will continue to do so until the finale!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	39. Chapter 39

Got to spend a few days in San Diego with some close family friends. Man, it felt good to see them again! Especially since it seems like nowadays we only really see them at parties. Heh, well not like they have much choice in the matter – my mom would've dragged them out of the house and along with us as long as we were in San Diego. Not that they would've minded much, ha ha ha.

And on my front, damn, it feels like I'm close to getting this current job! Applied for it quite some time ago and am just hoping I pass their requirements for the background. Hopefully things will go for me!

Oh and I'm making progress on my novel too! It's now 49 chapters long as of recent and around 401 pages long! It's honestly so long now with the end still far off in sight that I'm going to likely have to make a new document for chapter 50 onwards since it takes a while before my writing program fully processes everything for me to actually save it. Better to split it for now so that it won't take forever to save. At the rate this is going, it really will be noticeably longer than my first one, heh heh.

Whelp, not going to bore you guys with anything else from my life – time to get on with the chapter!

Enjoy!

Chapter 39

Blake watched each and every single movement Jaune made intensely, making sure he wasn't going to suddenly attack her or anything. Granted, as a(n) (assistant) professor, he was much stronger than her in just about every respect, so eyeing him so intently was likely useless, but that didn't mean it would do to just be lax about this.

Because now that it was just the two of them all alone here, the hairs on her body were standing up so straight that they could probably pierce something.

Such was the fear she was feeling.

So she could be forgiven for nearly flinching when the young man started to take a few steps forward. She only settled down when he ended up crossing his arms over his chest as opposed to reaching out for her.

Jaune looked as if he were pondering something. "Well? You going to speak up? I barely even heard you there."

Blake blinked. When she'd uttered a few of her many questions just now, she hadn't realized she'd spoken in such a low tone of voice.

So without dropping her guard, she spoke. "Just what exactly did you speak of with Ruby? Is there something coming that we all need to prepare for? Just how do you factor into all of this too? But just as importantly… why is it that Faunus seem to be so afraid of you?"

She watched as his expression shifted. She wasn't quite sure what to call said expression, but it didn't seem like he was going to do anything drastic.

In any case, she felt her questions just now, but a few out of many, were fairly reasonable and spot on. The first question was a no-brainer, really, formed out of concern for her friend and leader. The second question was something formed from how odd it was that Jaune and professor Goodwitch were giving them all so much training every other day now. The third question was due to how Jaune just seemed to be connected to it all, more due to her own intuition rather than any concrete evidence beyond him being so omnipresent here at the recent events.

And of course, her final question just now had been that had been pestering her for weeks on end now.

Now then… it was time to see if he answered.

Which he didn't seem to be doing for some reason, remaining awfully silent.

"Well? Are you going to answer me?" she stated harshly.

To her annoyance, he motioned at her in a placating manner with his hands, as if she were some unruly child being told to settle down. "Just thinking of how to word it is all; if I just blabbed out whatever came to mind first, it wouldn't really make much sense, you know."

A long and rather awkward pause then followed as the young man thought once more. Then Jaune nodded, more to himself than to Blake.

"Regarding your leader and your second question, well, they both tie in together." Jaune's expression had become quite serious as he started speaking and he once more took a few steps forward, which was cause enough for Blake to take just as many steps back. He seemed to ignore this. "I'm afraid I can't go into much detail – not enough time for that – but there is a threat coming. That much, I can tell you. A threat so great in scope that, as you've likely noticed, we've been upping everyone's training as a result. And my talk with Ms. Rose has to do with this too."

"…In what way?" Blake demanded.

Now it was Jaune's turn to slowly speak. "…Let's just say she has a special gift of sorts. One that no one else in the academy has. Hell, she's one of the few in all of Remnant with such a gift. Our talk was simply to make her aware of it and to try and learn how to use it."

At that, Blake was suddenly feeling even more hostile than she ever had before towards Jaune. "Why? So you can use her as a weapon of some kind?!"

She couldn't help but raise Gambol Shroud in response, ready to attack if she didn't like his response.

But said response left her feeling surprised.

"Hell no," Jaune answered immediately and firmly. "Her gift would definitely be a boon against the threat to come, but not enough to make _that_ big of a difference. Even if she could, we'd never consider turning her into a weapon or anything. Just what sort of people do you think we are?"

He sounded far too sincere to be deceiving her. So, with some measure of childish reluctance, she accepted that response and decided to press on. "What about my other two questions?"

Jaune sighed. "How I'm involved, right? Well, this threat that is approaching is one I've been working to stop for quite some time now…"

"And now you're roping in other people to compensate for your efforts? Great job you're doing then," Blake couldn't help but quip, his words making her feel a bit angrier than before.

The look of pure annoyance that he then shot her, however, was enough to extinguish her anger and replace with pure fear. Once again, her instincts were telling her she was making a big mistake in approaching him like this and it took a good deal of effort to keep herself from suddenly running away.

The only reason she hadn't tried to run just now was more due to him still not making any overtly hostile moves rather than any show of willpower on her part.

"The threat is much too big for just one person to stop." He sounded a lot more serious than he had before. He'd sounded cold, even. Her comment had genuinely annoyed him, perhaps even outright angered him, it would seem. "Trust me, if it were possible for just one person to put an end to, I'd have done it all on my own by now. But this threat is way bigger than just me. Definitely bigger than you. Bigger than anyone, really. And it's a threat that I'd only learned about just a few years back, so it's not as if I'd had much time to fully prepare things. To be honest, I'm still personally preparing for it even now, not that you'd appreciate it, I guess."

Blake opened her mouth to speak. Whether it was to ask another question relating to this or if it was another comment on her part, even she didn't know.

For she was cut off before she could even utter a single letter.

" _Be quiet,"_ Jaune said so suddenly and with such an intensity that belied his current expression that Blake could only freeze up, with the only movement on her part being the closing of her mouth.

Her comment had most definitely struck a nerve of sorts.

A tense silence then filled the arena and Blake's defensive stance faltered a bit under the gaze of Jaune, who most certainly couldn't be blind if his eyes could lock onto her that intensely.

Then the young man sighed and Blake could literally see the tension leave his body… but not completely. Even when he closed his eyes for a moment and opened them up, the apologetic smile that then sprung on his face didn't quite reach them.

"…Sorry," he said, not quite sounding sorry. Not completely. "In any case, this isn't something any one person alone can just deal with. In all honesty, I'm surprised you can't see that, given what the headmaster has told me about your, ah, past. Unless that's just your attitude towards me just talking."

Blake felt her mouth open and close a few times, unable to say anything as her mind was failing to come up with any words to actually utterly, at least not coherently.

"Now I'm not going to tell you much about this threat." Jaune continued on without the slightest bit of hesitation. "Mainly because, well, you'll know what it is when you see it. But it's coming… within the next week or two. And it's going to hit everywhere and I say that without the slightest bit of exaggeration. I'm talking a potential extinction level event here. And when I say humanity, I am of course including the 'Faunus' as well. After all… there's really no distinction between them."

At that, Blake's mind finally started to work again. Her eyes narrowed in confusion at his words and she fell into a deep enough thought that she lowered her weapons completely.

"What do you mean by that?" Just why would he say something like that? For practically all her life, humanity and Faunuskind were always considered to be two separate species. It was such an everyday thing that even she couldn't help but distinguish between the two despite her feelings on the racism and discrimination against Faunus.

Yet he'd essentially gone and said that both were one and the same.

To her surprise, Jaune snorted, almost derisively… though she could be wrong, given how her own feelings towards him were naturally skewed. In any case, he seemed to be finding some level of bemusement at her own bewildered response and expression.

"My words shouldn't have been that confusing," he started. "It's like I just said – humanity and Faunus… they're one and the same. Or rather, the people known as 'Faunus' were born from humanity."

At this, Blake couldn't help but growl. "Stop beating around the bush! Just explain it clearly!"

Jaune's dull blue eyes locked onto her own yellow ones and his blank stare was enough to make her take a step back unconsciously.

"Tell me something… how do you think Faunus came to be?" Jaune suddenly asked of her.

"I-I…" Blake found herself unable to immediately answer. For said answer to his question was obvious – for all as long as humanity itself has existed, so too have Faunus. Simply put, there was no real 'answer' at all other than that both races or species have existed for as long as recorded history has existed. All that could really be stated was that humanity started to discriminate against her kind when they started to view Faunus' animalistic traits as something terrifying.

And so finally recomposing herself, she went on to tell him all this.

In response, Jaune shook his head. _"Wrong."_

That one word was stated in the same sort of tone he'd told her to be quiet earlier, firm and uncompromising.

It was all she could do to keep from taking another step back from the shock that one word had given her.

"H-How so?" she asked in a surprisingly quiet voice.

Again, Jaune merely stared at her for a moment before finally speaking. "Now, this has to do with why you and the others are so wary around me… but that'll be explained afterwards. Concerning the current matter, to put it most simply, you're wrong. As are everyone else. Faunus and humans being separate races? Just a load of shit, to be completely honest. The whole 'two races' thing is nothing more than a sham, brought on by the effects of things being lost to time and manipulation of the remaining facts."

Jaune stepped forward. "Long before technology and more modern civilizations ever even remotely began, humanity as whole were hunter-gatherers, a concept I don't think needs much explaining in and of itself. However, keep in mind something here: humanity wasn't the only group with aura; animals had aura too. What's more, animals already had their auras unlocked, which made them that much tougher for humans to take down, even when they themselves started to unlock their own auras.

"Now that said, while that did even the odds a fair bit, hunting the animals themselves was still a damn hard thing for humans to do. You know how it is, I'm sure – if an animal like a deer was to be startled by anything, there was a damn good chance it would take off running for the hills. And of course, animals do migrate, just like humans do. So of course, even with aura and physical training and early weaponry, humans would still have a challenge even getting close enough to animals in the first place.

"So… they eventually figured out a way to further even the odds in their favor."

"…And how did they do that?" Blake asked now.

"Some would call it magic. Others, some kind of ritual. Maybe even some ancient form of science that only the people of back then would know how it works," Jaune began. "Whatever it was exactly, humanity back then decided that in order to better track animals, especially the ones they most hunted for food, then they would need to become just partially like them.

"Now, despite what I just said exactly about the proper term for it, it involved something akin to a spiritual communion of sorts, one that would allow humans to partially merge with the souls of deceased animals. This led to these humans developing sharper senses, meant to better track and locate their prey…. And this also led to these same humans developing physical traits of the animal spirits they communed with, such as claws or tails… or ears such as yourself."

In the face of the words just spoken, Blake could only remain completely silent, listening but not quite comprehending.

Impossible. That was the only word that really came to mind. What Jaune was telling her right now was simply impossible, sounding more akin to something out of a novel she'd read.

And yet… yet he spoke of this so calmly and firmly that it sounded convincing.

Furthermore, in a world where people's very souls empowered and protected them was common knowledge, where creatures of pure darkness roamed the lands outside the kingdoms and where the craziest of weapons could exist, such a thing as what Jaune was saying wasn't that far-fetched…

But that didn't make it any less difficult to mentally digest.

Jaune seemed oblivious to her increasing distress, however, for he continued on. "Then when these very same people went on to have kids and so on, well, from what I understand, while the animal traits they first gained aren't genetic or anything, the spiritual strength needed for this communion was. This led to children who would somehow commune with animal spirits while still in the womb and would therefore be born with some animal trait or another. Now while the animal traits of their parents weren't inheritable in and of themselves, such children did develop an affinity for whatever animals their parents had communed with, hence why you have entire families of 'Faunus' as they eventually came to be called possessing similar animal traits. And over the decades and eventually centuries, the types of animals that these people unconsciously communed with expanded, resulting in the diversity of 'Faunus' that exists today."

Jaune took a few seconds to take a deep breath before continuing yet again. "But of course, that doesn't mean this spiritual strength is something exclusive to people descended from these first 'Faunus' or anything; there are cases where someone with such strength is born to those of average or below average spiritual strength, resulting in cases where a 'human' couple gives birth to a 'Faunus' child. And the opposite could happen just as well. You just don't hear about these kinds of stories, however, since they tend to be covered up in one form or another."

At that, Jaune seemed to sigh out of sadness. "Sadly, at some point, the first few generations of 'Faunus' started to get rather cocky, believing themselves to be superior to those that didn't have the spiritual strength to commune with animal spirits. So much so that, if I remember right, some even broke away from their former families and groups to form their own Faunus exclusive ones. Naturally, no one really likes it when others act superior to them and so it was really only a matter of time before conflicts started to break out between 'humans' and 'Faunus,' especially since some of the latter-exclusive groups started to kill-steal. And, well, back then, losing their prey to others meant going without food so kill-stealing was a very big deal."

Another pause. "And of course, the Grimm were around back then too and so when combined with these inter-personal conflicts, a lot of the hunter-gatherer groups were wiped out and the remaining people were forced into hiding for a long time… and by the time humanity had grown enough in number again to venture out into Grimm territory, a lot of time had long since passed the spiritual communion had been significant, which meant when 'humans' and 'Faunus' met one another again, no one had really known where the other had come from."

"…And so the rest was history…" Blake said just as Jaune finished speaking. In response, Jaune nodded, an action that made the B of team RWBY almost completely slump to the floor.

Whatever feelings of hostility that may have lingered moments ago had completely upped and vanished now in the face of what Jaune had told her. And naturally, she refused to believe it. Yet his words and how certain he'd sounded had resonated with something within her, making it almost impossible for her to try orally denying what the blond had said.

Instead, all she could do was raise her head to look him in the eyes and utter just a few words. "Just how do you know this?" There was the slightest of pauses before she followed this question up with another. "And just how can it be true?"

"Truth is truth, regardless if anyone actually believes it. So whether or not you take what I just explained at face value is entirely up to you," Jaune stated softly. "As for how I know this… I have a very reliable source. And no, I'm not going to reveal him to you – he'd only scare you far too much, even though that wouldn't be his intention."

The two of them then proceeded to just stare at one another blankly, Blake looking and feeling completely shocked and even crushed whilst Jaune appeared completely calm now in comparison.

The B of team RWBY couldn't turn her gaze away from the young man, so lost in her own thoughts to even realize they were staring in the first place.

And could one really blame her?

Having grown up on the island of Menagerie, she'd grown up with stories of persecution and abuse from many of the other people around her. And whenever she'd ventured outside of the island, she too had seen up close how humanity had viewed her kind. It had lit a fire inside of her that had then led her to join many of the protests against such discrimination and it was this same fire that had urged her on to join the White Fang back when it was still a peaceful group and well into its phase as a terrorist organization.

She had done so with the belief that humans and Faunus were two separate groups that had to learn how to truly coexist with one another, even in spite of the less than reputable actions she'd committed during her time with the more violent version of the White Fang.

But now… if what Jaune had just told her was even remotely true, then everything she'd believed and fought for – everything that many others had believed and fought for – was completely moot.

Literally all of this time, they had done nothing but literally fight their own people and with everyone nowadays absolutely none the wiser as to the truth of it all.

For the first time in years, she could feel her eyes start to water, her spirit crushed in a way she'd never known. This was enough to make her finally realize she was staring at Jaune and she averted her gaze.

"…Just how does this tie into us 'Faunus' being so wary of you?"

At this point, she couldn't really care for anything else, but she might as well get this question answered too. And it would probably help take her mind away from its current train of thought.

"Ever hear of how animals seem to have a sort of sixth sense? How they always seem to just know when there's something dangerous around? It's a sense that virtually all 'Faunus' have gained as well. I'm merely setting that sense off, despite my best efforts not to," Jaune explained.

Yes, that was indeed something she'd heard of. Hell, just about everyone has heard of it…

But wait. Wait a second here. In today's world, that sixth sense of animals was really only set off when there were-.

Blake's eyes shot wide open and her whole body stiffened. Her current train of thought was completely derailed in favor of the thought that had just occurred to her:

Nowadays, animals' and by extension the Faunus' sixth sense really only triggered when there were _Grimm_ around.

So slowly that it was almost physical painful, Blake raised her head to look at Jaune once more.

He was smiling a little sheepishly.

She could see it in his expression, the confirmation of the thought she'd just had.

Immediately, her body seemed to come out of its unfrozen state and shakily she started to raise Gambol Shroud-.

-Only for Jaune to cross the distance between them in a literal instant and step down on her blades, which had been crossed on the floor before her just now. "Calm down," he said in a voice that equal parts authoritative and pleading. "I can tell what sort of thought you just had there… and you're not wrong per say… but you're not entirely right either."

For all of a few seconds, Blake tried in vain to lift Gambol Shroud out from under Jaune's foot, but the strength difference was just too much. So she stopped and did nothing else, trusting him just enough as of now that he wouldn't suddenly attack her or anything.

"W-What do you mean?"

"…I'll admit there is some kind of connection between me and the Grimm," Jaune explained. "But not in whatever way you may be thinking of now. And remember, I'm on your side. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have done any of the things I'd done so far against the impending threat."

As if to prove it, he removed his foot off her weapons and she slowly drew them back. She made sure to keep a careful eye on him, however, even when he backed up a few feet.

"Now then…" he started to say. "How about I give you the rest of the day off? I believe you have quite a bit to think over."

Once more, his words surprised her. But not that much now; in hindsight, if he truly had been a threat, there would have been plenty of times he could've hurt and killed her and any number of other people. And when combined with everything he said and had done up until now…

Gah! This was honestly getting rather hard to think on. Her own mind was feeling extremely frazzled from everything she'd learned and the way her instincts were still reacting to Jaune weren't helping either in spite of his words.

Better to take him up on this offer now before her mind explodes from all the overload she was feeling right now. "Right… much appreciated," she muttered.

Still moving a little shakily, she still managed to back up and make her way to the locker room to store Gambol Shroud, all whilst keeping her eyes locked onto Jaune.

It wasn't until she stashed her weapons away and promptly made her way across and out of the arena that she finally turned her eyes away from the young man.

Once he was out of sight and she was certain she was out of _his_ sight as well, she broke into a run back to the dorm.

There honestly wasn't much of a need for her to run… other than to avoid Jaune potentially seeing the tears that had started to stream down her face.

This… this had been far more than she'd ever expected. And now she could only try and take some time to process it all.

* * *

With a heavy sigh, Jaune watched with mixed emotions as Blake ran off.

On one hand, her attitude towards him had honestly been making him feel just a tad bit annoyed with her, especially with how hostile and snappy she'd been during their 'chat' just now.

But on the other hand, he had gone and flipped her whole world upside down, not unlike how he and Tenebrous had down with Ozpin and the others. Perhaps, however, it had been far worse here with Blake than it had been with them, for the young woman had been particularly invested in the topic. After all, she was a 'Faunus,' so it's only natural she'd take it so personally.

And judging by her emotional state when he'd told her all that along with right now, it's pretty clear she believed what he'd said.

He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad thing that just about everything he had to say was so easily believed by others. Granted, what he did tell them was indeed true, but still… it felt like they all just sort of believed him a little too quickly.

Did he simply sound and look that sincere, that truthful? It was food for thought, really.

…And now he was getting off track a bit. Intentionally so, actually; the sight of Blake's aura, reflecting her inner turmoil so completely had been damn depressing to witness.

Despite how she'd acted to him, he genuinely hoped she would get better, at least as 'better' as could possibly be given the veritable bomb he'd hit her with.

He could certainly sympathize, hell even empathize, due to when he'd first learned of this too. He'd never had any problems with 'Faunus' prior to meeting with Tenebrous, but when his friend had eventually informed him of the truth behind the so-called separate 'race,' he'd damned near collapsed from the shock.

"Man, what a day," he mumbled to himself, running a hand through his hair.

With all that said, however, he just had to wonder what exactly to do now. For all intents and purposes, three members of team RWBY now knew that something was up – Ruby being aware of her silver eyes, Weiss being aware of Tenebrous' existence and Ruby's eyes, and now Blake with the truth behind 'Faunus' origins. This was in addition to them also knowing of the incoming threat, even if they knew little more than that it existed and was soon incoming.

At this rate, he might as well inform their final member, Yang, of this too, if only to save himself the trouble of potentially having to be cornered by her for something.

Maybe. Meh, maybe not. Wouldn't surprise him if the other three simply sat the girl down by the end of the week and told her what was up.

But on that note… should he, dare he even say it, tell his sister of all this? Not simply some vague details, but literally the whole truth? With the Trial fast approaching and with her semblance having yet to show signs of being discovered by her, would it be best to actually let her in on all this secrecy?

He was of half a mind to do so, for the secrecy has long since been killing him though he's made sure to put up a good front. She was his younger sister, after all, and hiding so much from not just her but the rest of their family was something that had never really sat well with him despite the practicality behind keeping everything so secretive. But with Jeanne undoubtedly going to be directly involved in the Trial, wouldn't it therefore also be practical to have her going into things with at least some idea of what was going on?

But on the other hand, with the Trial still just a little longer away and with Salem no doubt still making moves and preparations of her own, having Jeanne know too much could be a problem if Salem decided a sudden attempt to kidnap his sister was needed. Granted, the Apostle of the 'Mind' more than likely already knew about the preparations being made on their end thanks to the Grimm serving as her eyes and ears, but it never hurt to try taking some precautions.

Still, he had quite the dilemma on his hands now that it's come to the forefront of his mind. It was enough to start giving him a minor headache.

Just what to do, just what to do… truly, this was one seriously reoccurring question. Felt like he pondered this question every other day for the past several months, if not much longer.

Oh great… now he could feel himself starting to get worked up. Looks like the pressure from all of this was finally starting to get to him.

Letting out a minor growl, Jaune could only turn his eyes to the ceiling above, his Aura Vision revealing nothing save pitch blackness to him since no one was obviously above the arena.

He could only hope that such darkness was not something everyone else would be experiencing once the Trial began.

* * *

Not for the first time, Cinder moved about rather shakily and not just because using her crutches to do most of her moving was surprisingly draining.

Ever since the 'visit' she'd received from that _thing_ , she could easily say she hadn't been acting like her former self at all. Given the rapid string of failures she'd experienced, however, she was self-aware enough to know that the creature, whatever it really was, had merely been the final straw, albeit a very major final straw.

It didn't help when Emerald and Mercury had reported to her later that night all that time ago saying they too had encountered this… entity.

After they all had calmed down and had compared stories, Cinder had discovered that this creature of true darkness had gone after them consecutively and with truly frightening speed and efficiency.

That in and of itself made it seem that much more terrifying… but it had also revealed something rather interesting.

Having been exposed so completely to its presence, Cinder had become much more alert in regards to her surroundings. At times, she would dare say she could somewhat detect the creature, but more due to the cases of the chills she'd get at times rather than any actual detecting on her part. It was as if her body was remembering for her just how utterly small she was in comparison to this thing.

However, several days after that nightmarish night, she'd past by one Jaune Arc unintentionally one late night, the young man that had given her so much trouble having been wearing his signature black coat.

And it had been when they'd past by one another at that time that she'd felt that now familiar sensation again.

That _thing_.

She'd felt its eyes on her in that moment and she'd realized then and there that somehow it had taken on the form of Jaune Arc's damned coat.

And it had then been at that moment that she'd nearly wet herself back then, hindsight having kicked in and made her realize the creature had been with Arc all along.

Just thinking of this memory now as she traversed the hallways of Beacon was enough to make her turn a little pale and grimace.

Her moment of terrified reflection done now, though, she could only wonder just how exactly Jaune Arc had come into contact with such a creature.

Moreover, just how could the young man be on such evidently good terms with it? It boggled her mind just to even think on it.

Continuing her aimless trek throughout the hallways – due to her legs, she was excused all but indefinitely from combat classes – the half-maiden could only move along at a slothful pace with her crutches, her mind a whirlwind of activity now that she's reached past the stage of initial fear of these thoughts.

To be perfectly blunt with herself, her former plans had been a complete bust. And it didn't seem as if her master was going to be helping her directly anytime soon, a revelation that genuinely pained her. This meant that she was truly on her own, with only Emerald and Mercury on her side. And when factoring in their newfound fear of Jaune Arc – she'd shared her discovery with them later in the day when it had happened – she couldn't count on them _that_ much anymore since they have since then made it a point to give the young man and by proxy that entity a wide berth.

And she was no fool; the only reason she and her two lackeys weren't wasting away in some cell is because the usual cells wouldn't pose much of a threat to them. No doubt special cells were being prepared for them. It wouldn't surprise her if general Ironwood himself was personally involved in the construction of these cells.

While she was all but screwed in doing much of anything, the very least she could do – attempt to do, at any rate – is try to avoid capture. Of course, that was a mighty difficult task to pull off given her current condition. Even with the portion of the maiden power that she still possessed, fighting back would be hard to do, if not outright impossible, especially if the Fall Maiden herself or even Jaune Arc and his 'friend' were to be involved in apprehending her.

The only way she could envision herself mounting a decent escape would be through liberal use of Emerald's semblance as well as help from Mercury in moving along in a speedy manner.

This was an extremely vague plan, however, for she would still need to account for any and all eyes, figurative and literal, that Ironwood and Ozpin have on her in addition to the natural defenses of the academy itself. And, of course, there was trying to get past the Fall Maiden as well as Jaune Arc as well.

More importantly, she and her two lackeys would have to try getting past that thing…

And it was on that front that her mind was drawing blanks on what to do. That creature had made it more than clear that the power difference between them and it was insurmountable. And when remembering how it had isolated and intimidated them, outrunning it in any form would be likewise impossible.

Unless…

"Is there a way to distract it?" She couldn't help but mutter this aloud, if only in some attempt to further along her train of thought.

Nothing was immediately coming to mind though. Her contact with the thing had been far too brief and too terror-filled for her to try analyzing it properly. The only thing she could say with any certainty about it is that it is some kind of physical entity due to how it did move from Emerald to Mercury and then to her, not to mention the fact that it can transform itself into a pretty damn convincing coat.

Unless she was horribly off the mark, it did seem like it couldn't outright be in two places at once though, so that had to count for something.

But with whatever connection it may have with Jaune Arc, perhaps such a point was moot should the two of them decide to flank her.

…

She can't allow such fears to rule her so completely. She can't simply not do something – it just wasn't in her nature, not anymore anyways. For if she did do nothing, then soon enough she, Emerald, and Mercury would all be thrown into an inescapable cell. If she did something, however, well… looking at the situation now, she was still liable to be locked up anyways. Or even worse if that entity decided to personally teach her a lesson again.

But even then… at least she'd have done _something_. Who knows? She might actually succeed somehow. Won't know until she tries, right?

So with renewed determination, Cinder allowed herself a small smile for the first time in the long time.

Although it was slight, the future no longer looked dim to her.

* * *

 **Surprised to see Cinder again? Ha ha, in all honesty, even I was surprised initially when planning this chapter. Alas, as it turned out, Cinder does still have a role play – minor, if you guys don't mind the honesty, but still a role to play nonetheless.**

 **And of course, by extension, Emerald and Mercury have roles to play as well still. So I hope you will look forward to what else they have to do!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	40. Chapter 40

Well damn! Fate Stay Night Heaven's Feel is going to be subbed and shown in US theaters! No idea when the exact date of its airing will be as of this writing, but hearing of this news really excited me! Seems like October is going to be a good month for me in terms of stuff to thoroughly enjoy! Can't wait for it!

On another note, anyone somehow get a chance to watch the Fate Kaleid movie that came out a while ago? From what I hear, it's pretty good, but it always helps to get some more opinions! As someone who got into Fate Kaleid a bit through the Shirou flashback arc, I'm a little worried that they may have butchered some of the scenes.

Heh, well in any case, as long as they have an appropriately new EMIYA theme for all of us to enjoy, I'm sure it'll be okay.

Now on a fic related note, the 'main event' for this chapter and the next was inspired by talks I've had with **TheDemonicSaint** fairly recently. Thank you for the help!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 40

Several more days had gone by. The Trial was so damn close to starting now that James Ironwood couldn't help but break out into a cold sweat whenever the thought crossed his mind. Which was quite often, resulting in him going through several handkerchiefs to dab away at the sweat that appeared on his forehead and neck.

As of now, the Trial was perhaps at most just another week away, maybe even a day less than that.

Preparations on Ozpin's side of things had long since been completed and looked over as have preparations on his side as well. Granted, some of the paladins were still being worked on and his R&D division had apparently threatened mutiny throughout the past week according to Winter Schnee due to being overworked, but all things considered, things were surprisingly looking good.

But even with all that said, James naturally couldn't shake the worry that had deeply rooted itself within him. As someone who thrived on information in order to combat threats, the fact that a lot of information was still missing regarding Salem's strategies was enough to rattle him just a bit.

And of course, knowing that all too soon pretty much every Grimm in Remnant would be acting as one was another nightmarish thing to be experiencing. Knowing of it on a purely intellectual level had been one thing, even when preparing for it, but now to know that such a time was fast approaching was starting to grind his nerves away.

James knew that his allies were in a similar position, no doubt about that.

So why…

Why…?!

"Why the hell are you hosting a dance now of all times?!" He tried not to roar this at his longtime friend, but he ended up growling the words out at Ozpin nonetheless.

Ozpin, for his part, looked completely nonplus about this, which ticked James off a little bit. "The better question, James, would be 'why not?' Are you truly so against this dance?"

Inwardly, James sighed. He could already tell how this talk was going to go, but soldiered on anyways. "There's nothing wrong with the dance in and of itself – everyone needs to unwind anyhow – but doing so with the Trial so close to happening? We should still be training them instead!"

Ah yes, how sudden the announcement of a dance had been. Ozpin had broadcasted it to the entire student body just several days back – coincidentally, that had roughly been around the same time he'd spotted Oz looking a little upset over something – and had all but whipped them up into an uproar of joy and giddiness.

To sort of paraphrase what Oz had said at the time, the dance, which had always been a yearly tradition for Beacon, was being held just a little earlier than usual as a way of celebrating their efforts during the Breach as well as during reconstruction. And for putting up with the sudden increase in training as well, couldn't forget that.

The students had been happy as all hell and James had only been able to watch these past few days as some of his men were commandeered by Glynda and other members of the faculty into getting things all set up for this night, which is when the dance was to officially commence.

"James, you of all people should know that there is such a thing as overtraining. It would only do them more harm than good during the Trial if we just kept pushing the students like this. This dance is a good chance for them to unwind and rest," Ozpin said from behind his desk. His gaze was flat as he stared up at James.

And such a flat gaze only made James' left eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Of course, Ozpin had gone to make a damn good point right there, one that he'd seen coming miles away.

And then Ozpin's eyes softened up a bit. "And besides, it's precisely because of the Trial that I figured we might as well do this now – it may very well be the last time some of them could be enjoying themselves."

That statement sucked the fight right of James immediately along with his annoyance. Now all the general could do was tightly clench his jaw.

Given the sheer scale of battle that would be taking place in due time, casualties would be unavoidable on all fronts. No matter how prepared they all were, that would just be an inevitable fact.

Battle always had costs, after all…

Grumbling before finally letting out a huff, James folded his arms across his chest. "…While I can understand that, I don't like how lax security for this dance is looking so far."

Ozpin smiled almost sardonically. "Isn't that why you are here?"

Damn it, he should've seen _that_ one coming.

Sighing, James turned around, ready to leave the office. "See you when the dance starts, I suppose."

He knew a lost fight when he saw one. No further point in arguing when said argument was so thoroughly crushed right off the bat.

Barely acknowledging Ozpin's reply, the general left.

He now had a number of things to do – gathering up any available soldiers and setting them up at the best possible locations throughout the dance area, checking once more on Cinder Fall to see what, if anything she was up to, and going over some other files he'd neglected earlier. They could be important, after all.

Oh, and he had to talk with Penny too – apparently the girl wanted to know if the dress she got looked good before going to the dance. God help him if he somehow answered that particular question wrong.

* * *

Jeanne was feeling a number of things right now – perplexed, excited, embarrassed and kind of hurt. In the case of the latter, she was feeling physically hurt due to how Nora had been dragging her, Pyrrha, and Ren around Vale looking for the best possible dresses on their limited budget.

And by that, she meant that the three of them had literally been dragged around by the always impossibly energetic hammer user. Seriously, at a few points during the past few days, Jeanne was sure her arm had been dislocated at some point or another. Obviously, this actually hadn't been the case, but it sure felt like it. Ren had probably gotten it the worst though since his partner had been pulling him more or less by the back of his shirt, which had left him with a lot of pain in the neck. Poor Ren honestly hadn't been able to sleep very well at night due to having to angle his head awkwardly to avoid constant pain.

But in any case, this was a dance! That meant lights! That meant fruit punch and cheesy snacks! That meant going out on the dance floor and showing off her sick dance moves!

But most of all…

The blonde leader of team JNPR eyed her 'target,' who sat by himself in the cafeteria, the light of the sun shining through the windows and illuminating his form brilliantly.

Yes, this was a chance to ask her brother to the dance!

With said dance just hours away, a number of people had come here to the cafeteria to get an early dinner so that they could enjoy the event in full without getting distracted by food.

Jeanne had no idea if her brother was of this mindset – he'd shown no indication of wanting to go to the dance – but in any case, this was her chance to spend some quality time with him! What with him being an assistant professor and her being a student, the responsibilities that came with their respective positions left them with little time to simply enjoy one another's presence like they had in their youth, especially when considering all of the crazy things that have happened during this school year. But now was the time to rectify this!

However!

There was one problem. Or perhaps, more than just one problem, depending on how one views it.

Tentatively, the blonde looked across the table to her partner, Pyrrha, who was also eyeing her brother most furtively.

Yes, competition. That is what awaited her right now. She was not the only one who wished to occupy her brother's attention during the dance. And Pyrrha might not be the only one either, for she'd also spotted a number of other girls shooting glances Jaune's way throughout the past few days and unless she was reading too much into things, she was most certain these girls wished to have him as their escort to the dance.

Well, not on her watch!

…or so she'd like to say aloud. As things stood, she was having a hard time working up the nerve needed to ask him. Her only consolation was that this seemed to apply to the other would-be suitors as well, Pyrrha included too.

That particular thought sort of boggled her mind in a way since one would think someone as awesome as Pyrrha wouldn't have much trouble getting a date for the dance. Just goes to show that the redhead was just like anyone else, which made her that much more endearing for Jeanne.

Now she was getting distracted, a fact she realized when the hamburger she was eating ended up spilling just a little bit onto the front of her school uniform.

"E-Erk…" That new stain might not be all that easy to wash out.

"Psst!"

Jeanne then blinked. Then she looked to who made that sound. Didn't take her very long though, seeing as it was coming from beside her.

And from someone she really ought to not be all that surprised about.

"Nora?" she muttered in mild surprise. And worry, but she tried to keep this particular emotion hidden.

But how could she not worry upon seeing a certain gleam in the auburn-haired girl's eyes. "So?" Nora not so quietly whispered. "You gonna ask him?"

Of course, the answer to that question was a 'yes.' However, in the face of Nora, who Jeanne had long since learned could be more than a bit playful and teasing, the blonde faltered when it came to giving an answer. "U-U-Uh…"

But alas, it seemed her hesitation was answer enough for the girl, for Nora smirked deviously. From beside Nora, Ren poked his head forward for Jeanne to see and his expression was one of both resignation and apology.

Such an expression confused Jeanne… for maybe all of a split second.

Nora stood up suddenly from her seat, her head turned in her brother's direction. Jeanne knew what the girl was about to do just before Nora started to even open her mouth.

She could see the deep intake of air occur within Nora's chest and knew that the girl was about to scream something out for all the world to hear.

And she also knew in that instant what those words would probably be.

So with a speed she didn't know she was capable of, Jeanne all but leapt up and slapped a hand a little more harshly than she'd intended – or was that really the case? – over Nora's mouth and unceremoniously dragged the girl back down to her seat.

Ignoring with all her willpower the stares such an action had garnered, Jeanne eyed a cheeky looking Nora critically and with no small amount of panic.

"W-What were you trying to do?!" Unlike Nora, she knew how to whisper properly, though that didn't seem to stop some people nearby from hearing her anyways, if the interested looks were anything to go by.

"Was just trying to help you, oh brave leader!" Nora replied in the most unapologetic voice Jeanne had ever heard.

"How would that have been helping?!" the blonde instantly retorted.

To her surprise, Ren was the one to answer. "Because at least you'd have actually done something about the situation," he said tiredly.

The way in which he said it told Jeanne that he didn't really believe what he was saying. On a similar note, the way Nora's smile widened even more told Jeanne just who exactly got Ren to say that.

Nonetheless, it was a good point – simply dragging this out was only going to do her more harm than good, would give other girls the chance needed to ask her brother.

…Oh damn! And on that note, what about-?!

Feeling an odd sense of dread within herself, Jeanne whipped her head in Pyrrha's direction. She'd have thought the redhead would've used this chance to walk up to Jaune.

To her (pleasant?) surprise, Pyrrha had remained exactly where she sat, the girl still gazing at the blond young man with such desire and intensity that she didn't even seem to realize what had occurred just now.

"Better hurry up there, leader!" Nora said, no longer whispering. "Or else Pyrrha here might get around to it first!"

Jeanne let out a slight 'erk!' at that. Nora raised a good point; Pyrrha looked just about ready to finally make her move. And as much as she liked and respected Pyrrha, she couldn't just let the girl win this easily!

Taking a deep breath as she tried to fortify her resolve, Jeanne made ready to stand-.

-Only to then stop just as she was about to do so.

Someone had walked up to the table her brother sat at just now.

A woman.

One that seemed to be an acquaintance of sorts with Jaune, a good one at that, if the way Jaune smiled and waved at her was anything to go by.

Feeling her chance was gone, Jeanne could only watch with a slightly ajar mouth as the woman sat down.

Just who the hell was this?!

* * *

Over the past several days, Amber had put her newfound freedom to wander around just about anywhere to good use.

By now, no doubt the staff and student body recognized her to some extent after having walked around so much. And while normally, being the center of attention would've been rather stressful due to being the Fall Maiden, taking into consideration the Trial that soon approached, Amber figured it wasn't going to do much harm to be out and about around people that much.

Besides, she could claim to have some friends now in the form of Ozpin, Glynda… even that stuffy general Ironwood.

And of course, Jaune as well, whom she now greeted as she sat down at the table.

"Having an early dinner, eh?" she asked as she did so. She couldn't help but immediately blink thereafter, feeling a number of eyes suddenly on her.

Turning around, she looked all around. She saw a handful of students, evidently intrigued by her presence for some reason, hastily look away while a relative few continued to look on albeit a bit more discreetly.

Among these relative few, she recognized the faces of Jaune's sister and her team, her friend here having spoken to her at decent length about them during the past week or so.

She quirked an eyebrow at this. Why the sudden interest in her?

Oh well, no biggie.

"Just got a little hungry was all," Jaune said, responding to her initial quip. "How about you? Want something? I can go get it for you if you want."

Turning back around to face him, she smiled a little. "That's very sweet of you, but no thanks. Not that hungry right now." She leaned forward a bit on the table. "Anyways, any idea what is up with this dance? Ozpin and Glynda sure pulled it out of left field as far as I'm concerned."

Jaune chuckled at that a bit. "It's something the school does every year, albeit not this early on. But considering how close the Trial is to starting, well…"

Amber could only nod at that. "Ah, I see. One last time to enjoy ourselves…" she mumbled out.

She could respect that. After all, once the Trial started, there'd hardly be any time for any fun, to put it mildly. And should they all fail the Trial, well, there wouldn't be much of anything left afterwards. Even if they all somehow pulled through, she couldn't imagine humanity getting back to its usual day-to-day life that quickly.

Jaune nodded softly. "Yep. Of course, the official reason is that it's something of a reward for everyone's efforts during the Breach and reconstruction."

"Oho, nice cover story there."

"I guess so, ha ha."

"Heh, they sure got things ready in short order too. Not to mention the students as well – saw plenty of them throughout the past week with outfits already in hand. The people here sure work fast."

At that, Jaune chuckled. "It's sort of their thing, I guess."

Amber then shrugged. "Looks that way." Then she paused for a long moment or two.

She hadn't simply come up to him now on a whim; she'd come here on a mission. While the suddenness of this dance sure had thrown her off, she wasn't one to simply pass up an opportunity to unwind like this. Like Jaune had just pointed out, this may very well be the last time any of them can truly enjoy themselves before the Trial started.

Earlier in the week, she'd been able to sneak into Vale with some help from Glynda to find a dress for the dance, so on that front she was already set and ready to go.

However, it wouldn't do to go to such an event without an escort on hand.

Obviously, she couldn't go with a student – she didn't exactly know any of them, after all – nor could she really go with any of the faculty for one reason or another… except for one person.

And he was sitting right in front of her, eating away while oblivious to her internal struggle.

"So who are you going with to the dance?" She hoped that came out casually. Even if Jaune appeared to be rather dense, there was no telling how easily he could pick up on her emotions, especially with that Aura Vision of his.

"Eh?" Jaune looked surprised by the question. "Oh, I'm not going to the dance at all."

For some reason why, that response took her completely by surprise, if only due to how immediate and carefree it was. "W-Why's that?"

Now to her slight annoyance, Jaune merely shrugged. Evidently, the dance was something that held little priority for him. "Figured I could do something else like train. Been a while since I've done so on my own, even if it's no longer really necessary for me. Still, helps to keep my moves sharp." A slight pause occurred as he looked thoughtful. "Either that, or I could probably assist security – no telling if Salem will try a sneak attack or something, if only to throw us off a bit before the Trial starts."

Annoyance swelled deep within Amber at his words. Even though such words were perfectly rational, they still triggered something within her.

Jaune, for all of his awkwardness and happy attitude outside of serious matters, was someone clearly dedicated to his 'mission,' which in this case was ultimately stopping Salem. But the problem is that this 'mission' of his was practically all-consuming. From all their talks together, Amber could surmise that virtually all of his actions since meeting Tenebrous had been for the sole purpose of this upcoming Trial – the training, the fighting, the well-intentioned scheming and all of the talking and advice he gave out… all for the sake of surviving this Trial and defeating Salem.

Hell, him applying for Beacon here had been for the 'mission' too in some respect.

So just where did that leave everything else in life for him? When was the last time he truly and sincerely bothered to take some kind of break?

"Amber?"

His voice sounded so full of confusion and even concern that it was honestly quite touching. But under the current circumstances, it was a little infuriating given how utterly _clueless_ he was.

Initially, she'd intended to work her way up to asking him to the dance, play the role of a shy girl to do so. But now? That was no longer an option.

A different approach was now painfully needed.

"Whelp, you better cancel those plans of yours," Amber automatically said.

"W-Why's that?" was Jaune's immediate and confused response.

"Because you're coming to the dance with me!" she declared firmly. Her voice left absolutely no room for debate – this was going to happen whether he liked it or not. On second thought, she was going to make sure he liked it!

All around her, she heard some students – mostly female – gasp. And cry out in despair?! No matter, unimportant right now.

She continued on, before Jaune had the chance to mount any kind of feeble argument. "You and I are going together to this dance and you _will_ have a good time! No more working or anything for the night, got it?!"

She ended up leaning more and more across the table with every word she loudly spoke, forcing Jaune to lean further and further back with his hamburger awkwardly being held in his hands the whole time. His dull blue eyes were wide with surprise and confusion.

But he properly answered, at least. "Uh… s-sure? Sounds great?" He sounded the opposite of sure, but it worked.

Amber now smiled triumphantly. "Good. Meet me at my room at 7pm, _sharp_! And before you ask about a suit, I'm sure your friend can help you with that."

Given that Tenebrous could easily shift into a coat, surely the god could change into a suit. At least, this was her reasoning and she had no reason to think otherwise. Or rather, she refused to think otherwise.

With nothing more needed to be said, Amber stood up, unable to stop smiling now. That had felt pretty good to do, even if it hadn't gone the way she'd initially intended.

"Enjoy the rest of your dinner, Jaune. See you later.~" she all but sang out before turning and walking away. She couldn't quite stop herself from swaying her hips too as she did so.

As she proceeded to leave one gobsmacked Jaune behind, she felt as light as feather. Nothing could bring her mood down now.

Not even the crying faces of some of the students here, weird as the sight was.

Right then, time to start getting ready! She was going to knock Jaune's socks right off later tonight!

* * *

In the span of what had to be only a few minutes, Jaune's day had gone from perfectly normal to outright bizarre.

Amber had approached him normally enough, but holy hell, how quickly that had changed.

He'd gone from having plans of training or doing security work to now having to attend the dance of all things with Amber.

In other words, he was now going on a _date_.

 _A date_. As in, something he'd never once done before in his entire life. As in, something he'd never thought he'd ever do – before all of this had started with Tenebrous, girls had never really given him the time of day for anything, much less a date.

And now here was a girl – no, a full-grown _woman_ – that all but _commanded_ him to go on a date with her.

…

…

…

Wow, his mind was having a harder time processing this than he'd have ever expected.

Had the world just turned upside down or something?!

"J-Just what is even going on?" Jaune could only mumble under his breath. Of all things, this is what made him question reality.

And of course, no answer to his question was forthcoming, leaving him to just sit there for the rest of his dinner time, thoroughly and unabashedly stupefied.

* * *

From afar, Pyrrha was internally crying tears of despair.

All this time, she'd watched Jaune, waiting for the most opportune time to approach and ask him if he'd like to accompany her to the dance. The problem with this, however, is that just about all day had been an 'opportune time' to ask him and instead of ceasing the initiative, she'd dawdled badly.

And now look at how things had turned out!

And it wasn't as if some other girl her age had approached the assistant professor, oh no… instead, it'd been a young yet very much mature woman that had practically waltzed right in and claimed the young man as her escort for virtually all to hear.

Ignorant to the various other girls that seemed to be crying out in emotional anguish, Pyrrha could only plaster on a blank expression, smiling in such a way that was completely devoid of all emotion. Robotically, she stabbed and poked at the food before her, which she'd been ignoring for quite some time now.

Cold food to now try and futilely mend her cold heart. How oddly fitting.

But.

But.

But-!

Slowly, the coldness within her slowly vanished as her mind began to process this situation once more in greater clarity.

That woman, whoever she was, may have told Jaune to be her date, but the young man himself had really seemed to agree out of some blind stupor, meaning the chances of him outright _wanting_ to be going to the dance with that woman could possibly be low, right?

Right?!

In any case, regardless of how much enthusiasm the blond may have for this dance and impromptu date, surely he'd be open to the idea of dancing with others.

And if that was the case, then perhaps…

Yes.

Yes, of course! She may have a chance yet at snaring Jaune's heart somehow!

Granted, she didn't really have much of a plan in mind for this, but still it was the thought that counts! If nothing else, this was another thing to be motivated over!

With this now in mind, Pyrrha proceeded to eat her now cold dinner with much more vigor. She was going to need all the energy she can get for tonight.

Her feelings and more were depending on it!

* * *

Going (mostly) ignored by all, Ren sat there and slowly ate his salad.

Contrary to the calm and outright stoic expression on his face, he was about ready to up and make a run for the hills.

Slowly, he eyed his three female teammates.

Jeanne, who sat there looking like the world itself had cracked open and unleashed hell, the girl's expression slowly morphing to one that suggested she was more than ready to beat back the dark forces. It didn't take a genius to tell who the 'dark forces' were likely representing in the girl's mind.

Pyrrha, who had gone from looking as if someone had ripped out her heart to now giving off the air of a bold and confident general ready to unleash some new and secret weapon that would secure her victory.

And of course, there was Nora, who was, well, _Nora_. She was currently looking back and forth between Jeanne and Pyrrha and Ren could almost literally hear his longtime friend cackling maniacally within the zany confines of her mind. No doubt the girl was primed and ready to enjoy whatever was going to happen to the fullest. Hell, she may very well get involved and add to the brewing trouble and most likely at the expense of others if it came down to it.

Realizing all of this, Ren could only shrink in on himself unconsciously, his normally delicious salad starting to lose its taste.

In complete silence, he could only watch and fear for all in this academy.

This dance was likely going to be a night to remember and probably for all the wrong reasons.

Understanding that one Jaune Arc was to be at the center of it all, he could only pity him and pray for his soul.

For Ren got the feeling Jaune was going to need all the prayers he could get tonight.

* * *

Feeling much better than she had for quite some time now, Cinder shuffled about on her crutches. Having gotten herself a decent dinner just half an hour ago, she now made way back to her dorm.

Much like everyone else, she too had been preparing for this dance, albeit in her own special way.

While she would be dressing up and wheeled in via a wheelchair – she was getting very tired of and annoyed with these damned crutches – she wouldn't be going to the dance to enjoy it.

Oh no, hardly that. Instead, she will be going there as part of her plan to get the hell out of here.

When the dance had first been announced, there hadn't been a doubt in her mind that Jaune Arc and the Fall Maiden would be going to the dance and that little scene she'd witnessed in the cafeteria from her spot against the farthest wall had confirmed this.

Now while it'd normally be best to avoid being near those two at all, not being at the dance would only make Ironwood and his allies suspicious as to what she'd be up to most likely. With this in mind, going to the dance was honestly the only thing she really could do.

However, this will work to her advantage, or rather it should. Currently though, there wasn't too much she could do right now in order to capitalize on it, but thankfully she was having Emerald and Mercury currently taking care of that, with those being among the handful of students that were busying themselves with setting up the remaining things for the dance at this very moment.

With Ironwood's men having finally done their part in setting up and having returned to their usual duties while the faculty did the same, that meant the only people around to possibly notice her two lackeys doing anything suspicious were the students themselves and they naturally had no reason to suspect those two of doing anything even remotely criminal.

The plan, in theory, was simple enough though in practice would be a little more complex to pull off. It'd require Emerald's semblance along with the handy little devices she'd had said girl and Mercury go and fetch during their last trip to Vale from their previous safe house. With these components and with a little patience on their parts, the plan was to keep the attention of the Fall Maiden, Jaune Arc and by extension that thing just long enough to spark an incident that would also undoubtedly grab the attention of Ozpin, Ironwood and just about everyone else. This would then give them just enough pandemonium to slip out and hijack one of the currently docked bullheads that she'd had Mercury sneak in and already hotwire. With the bullhead already set up and ready to go once someone got to the controls, it'd be child's play from that point on to fly well away from Beacon before anyone could really take notice.

For once, the general silence of the bullheads would come in handy so long as they don't fly off too fast or else the engines will definitely be making some audible noise then.

Of course, there were a number of little details to this plan, but this was the general gist of it and it was something she had taken to mentally reciting to herself in an attempt to keep calm.

The way her eyes would sometimes dart to the nearby shadows, however, was all the sign the hyperaware Cinder needed to know that she wasn't completely calm. Kind of hard to be fully in control of herself given the still lasting impression that entity had left on her. But coming up with this plan had really done wonders for her, giving her something to truly focus on and at least divert her attention from that night.

If nothing else, she could at least say that she was no longer wallowing over that night. What's done is done, after all. All that can be done now was to try and rectify this before she and her two last helpers really are thrown into a cell.

Releasing a sigh as she finally got back to her dorm and entered it, she eyed the dress she had taken the time to purchase for this night.

Even if she obviously had no intention of staying at the dance for long before enacting this plan, she might as well go out in style, she supposed.

At least if things go south and that thing decides to put her down for good, at least she won't end up dying looking like an animal.

That ought to count for something, right?

* * *

Completely out of the blue, Adam sneezed just as a bout of anger simultaneously set in. How odd; all things considered, there was hardly anything for him to be upset over. Must just be recalling something unpleasant somehow, wouldn't be the first time that had happened.

In any case, things truly were proceeding smoothly.

Ever since his little demonstration, others have been rallying behind him at an almost alarming rate. And now with that damned Vytal Festival so close at hand, so too were the preparations close to being completely finished. Hell, if anything, at this point it was simply a matter of triple checking that everything was in place.

As of now, he had just about every type of usual ordinance rounded up along with a hefty amount of Dust that he'd made it a habit of keeping hidden away over the past few years, even when that pathetic Torchwick had been going around robbing Dust for that failure of a train plan. In addition to this, he'd already assembled several platoons of operatives that will personally be following him into battle while various other small cells had already been organized and were being moved into place to attack various other parts of Vale while he and his operatives directly attacked the coliseum where the festival was to be taking place at.

All in all, Adam would dare say that things were coming along splendidly, far more so than the 'plan' that bitch Cinder had had in place during their tenuous alliance.

Ha, looks like that bitch had been all bark and no bite. As expected of a human, he supposed. She may have surprised him when she'd somewhat coerced him and his men back then, but it seems like that may have very well been a fluke.

Damn, he was in such a good mood right now that not even the thoughts of Salem in the back of his mind could quite put a damper on it.

If anything, simply thinking of that enigmatic woman now brought a feral smirk to his face. "Soon, your time will be up too."

With all of the resources now at his disposal and once Vale has been reduced to the ashes it deserves to be, no doubt many will flock to his righteous cause, thereby bolstering his forces enough that not even Salem should be capable of doing much against him, even with all of those Grimm of hers.

After all, he now had the ability to control Grimm as well, even if it might not be as many at any given time as her.

But in any case, once Vale and Salem are taken down, it'll finally be time for the Faunus and more importantly the White Fang to begin their reign.

He relished this thought greatly as he now began his walk to the makeshift training ground. He'd need to keep his skills sharp, after all.

For once the attack began, he fully intended to also back pay the trouble and humiliation that damned girl and huntsman had given him tenfold, no, a _hundred_ fold!

They will rue the day they'd ever crossed paths with him!

"Soon," he muttered darkly. "Soon, everyone will come to know our wrath."

The attack was planned for less than a week from now. And on that day, all would change forever.

He couldn't wait.

* * *

 **Initially I had intended to do the whole dance in this one chapter only to then immediately realize how absurdly long the chapter would be if I'd done that, ha ha ha. So while it might be somewhat bad pacing to split the original chapter idea like this, it was better than making you guys a whopper of a chapter. Granted, it's not like I haven't written long chapters in the past or anything, but I'm trying to keep chapter length fairly consistent for this entire fic.**

 **But of course, only time will tell if this is a goal I can achieve considering the sheer amount of content I have yet to write for the Trial, especially certain parts that I am more than eager to want to write ASAP. But alas, pacing, ha ha ha.**

 **Anyways, hope you all will enjoy the shenanigans that will be taking place during the dance for it will pretty much be the last thing before the Trial, after all of this build up, finally takes place! And for that matter, I hope you'll enjoy the Trial as well when it finally starts!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	41. Chapter 41

Sorry for the wait! The most recent chapter of my original novel took a while longer than I'd thought it would – was having a hard time figuring out what exactly to write for it.

Whelp, this is it – the dance chapter! This is going to be longer than usual since I don't want to drag out the event too much, seeing as this really will be the final part before the Trial earnestly begins. That being said, I do hope you will enjoy this final respite for all of the characters before things start going to hell, ha ha ha.

Now then, onto the chapter!

P.S. In case my description for Jaune's suit is lacking, basically he's wearing what Sakata Kintoki wears for the Heroic Spirit Formal Dress Craft Essence from Fate Grand Order. Minus the gold, of course.

Chapter 41

It was ten minutes until seven and Amber was now beginning to understand quite well what people talked about when they said their stomachs would do somersaults. It ought to go without saying that she was now starting to feel more than a little nervous.

Damn, perhaps she should've gone about this differently after all…? No. No, damn it, something had to be done about Jaune's lack of fun in his life now…

Even if that meant having to personally lead him onto the dance floor.

That said, she couldn't fully stop himself from folding her arms under her breasts and rubbing her elbows, a nervous tick of sorts that she'd had from long ago and was now making its return.

For what had to be the hundredth time in the past half hour, Amber checked herself out in the mirror that Ozpin and Glynda had provided for her days ago, checking to make sure nothing about herself seemed out of place.

She wore a dress that went down to her calves and had just the one strap, going over her right shoulder. The dress itself could only be described as 'autumn' in color, starting at light golden yellow at the top and slowly going into an autumn leaf orange near the bottom, which stood out thanks to her brown skin. There was a slit along the left side it, allowing a good view of her toned left leg while the upper back of the dress was just low enough to show off her shoulders and back.

As for accessories, she'd ended up putting on a very light touch of make-up, a little blush to make her cheeks appear a bit rosy – not that she needed it in hindsight, considering how much she was blushing as is – along with a touch of lip gloss to make her lips stand out just a bit more. She had earrings on as well, small ones made of gold in the form of autumn leaves to match her dress.

All in all and at the risk of sounding arrogant, Amber would dare say she looked like quite the knock out in her choice of clothes for the night, though now that nervousness was thoroughly gripping her heart, she pondered most self-consciously if perhaps her dress was a bit too form-fitting, realizing just how much it hugged all of her curves, almost as if it was a second skin. Granted, it wasn't snug and wouldn't get in the way if she moved around a lot, but, well, she was feeling worried still. After all, this was actually the first time in a very long time she'd ever gone to any sort of event that had such a dress code.

The dress had been designed with classiness and hints of risqué in mind in fairly equal measure, but the Fall Maiden could only play with her hair as the minute hand of her nearby clock ticked ever more closely to seven.

"S-Should I change my hair style…? No, not enough time for that at all…" she muttered. Normally, she let her hair down, but for tonight, she'd managed to sweep and tie her hair together into a small braid that hovered just above her left shoulder.

She played with said braid listlessly, her thoughts going at a million miles a minute to absolutely nowhere.

And then just as soon as the clock struck seven, there was a knock at her door.

She totally didn't jump when that happened.

Recovering admirably quick, however, she wasted no time in answering the door. In the instant before doing so, she put up the most cheerful and completely not-nervous expression she could in order to mask her true feelings.

"Right on the dot! I can appreci-a-a-appreci-!" She started off okay and then became a stuttering mess.

Standing just a foot away from the now opened door was one awkward yet eager looking Jaune Arc. "H-Hey Amber." That was all he said.

Yet his hello went almost completely ignored, just barely registering to Amber's ears.

For all Amber could focus on… was Jaune himself.

There he stood before her, dressed in black slacks and dress shirt, a buttoned-up vest over the latter that was even darker in color. He had on a belt and tie that, along with the buttons, were a bone white, although the tie featured an intricate design that was a fierce crimson red in color. The design itself looked almost like a sword, but Amber couldn't really tell. While hardly snug, the clothes clung well to Jaune's clearly well-built frame, the sleeves cuffed up to reveal his muscular forearms.

Taking all this in, Amber only had one thing crossing her mind right now. "You look _ravishing._ "

"…Umm, T-Thank you."

It was at that moment that Amber realized she'd said that single thought _aloud_. It was all she could now do to keep from throwing herself through the nearest wall.

But she couldn't help it! He just looked so… so…!

Fighting down her embarrassment, she then realized yet another thing: Jaune was holding a small but beautiful white flower, its petals indicating it was in full bloom. "May I…?" Jaune asked as he held it up gently.

"Erm, yes?" Well this was off to a great start, Amber fumed; the two of them were barely able to say anything even remotely appropriate and it was barely even the first minute! So much for her going into this thing prepared and all – she just had to go and make that comment and put Jaune off and-!

But her frustration over this awkwardness that she'd gone and made vanished immediately when Jaune then gently reached up with flower in hand and placed it in her braid, his actions so delicate and natural that Amber was left with a completely blank mind.

"There we go," Jaune now said softly. His dull blue eyes locked onto her own as he said that. Amber could feel her face heat up immensely. "…You look beautiful, Amber." He said shyly, a blush of his own now appearing on his face. He scratched the side of his face. "I-I mean, granted, you always seemed beautiful thanks to your aura – a-ah, which, is really all I can see of people, now that I think about it… u-uhhh…"

He trailed off, mumbling completely to himself at this point.

Amber felt herself smile. And then she laughed. "Thanks, Jaune," she said with complete sincerity, beaming from his words. "And don't worry, I understand what you meant."

Thanks to his 'blindness,' while he could make out someone's physique and clothes with aura along with their eyes, he couldn't actually see every single physical detail such as skin color or facial features or if they're wearing make-up like she was doing. And from what he's said once to her in passing when explaining his Aura Vision, sometimes a person's clothes and actual body can sort of blur together if he was unfocused or too far away, even if their aura shone as brightly as the sun to him.

But in any case, thanks to his Aura Vision, he was able to see how people truly were like, in a sense at least. Forget physical beauty, he could see the beauty of the soul. And for him to compliment her like that so genuinely, well, it made her feel like she was floating among the clouds to put it mildly.

He now smiled in response. "I-I see. Okay then."

Unable to help but chuckle again at his lame response to her words, Amber sized him up once more, careful not to gawk this time around. Or say anything she'd otherwise like to keep to herself for now. "You look amazing yourself. I know I said Tenebrous could help you out here, but just wow…"

Jaune chuckled now, visibly lightening up. "Yeah. He was actually a bit surprised when I told him about the dance, but when I asked him to change into something more dance appropriate right after…" He motioned to his clothes. "Well, I can't actually see what how I look, really, but it seems like he did a good job."

"He did a great job." Amber agreed. She then looked to a small ornament that she hadn't noticed before on Jaune's vest, just over the blond young man's heart. It was a red jewel of sorts, but Amber knew better. "You sure know how to look good," she said, leaning forward just a bit towards said 'jewel.'

It was very slight, but the 'jewel' flashed ever so slightly in acknowledgement of her compliment.

Looks like the god was planning to be silent this evening. She didn't know if it was doing so in favor of watching how this turns out or if there was another reason for it, but she wasn't about to complain.

"Now then," she began. She held her right arm out to Jaune. "By now, the dance should have started. Wouldn't do to show up too late to it, even if it will last a long while, right?"

She inwardly squeed like a schoolgirl when Jaune linked his arm with her own without hesitation. He may have been awkward just now – not that she was one to talk – but when it came down to it, he was a gentleman as he slowly began to lead her out of the door frame.

"That wouldn't do at all. Especially when the two of us have to set the standard for dancing too," Jaune replied, sounding and looking much more at ease now.

Amber let out a quick laugh at that. Closing and locking the door behind her, she then allowed herself to be escorted by Jaune to the dance.

She could already tell this was going to be a night to remember.

* * *

Ruby wasn't one for events like this, but even she had to admit the place looked great. The hours of work put into decorating the room into a proper dancing hall showed through the elegant drapes and other things that she couldn't quite put a name to.

That even Weiss had given the place her (informal) seal of approval only solidified her opinion.

If only, though…

Ruby grumbled as she tried to walk a few steps in the heels her sister had all but forced onto her. Seriously, just how do the other girls here even move around with these demonic things?

"So far so good, Rubes!" Yang commented from across the room, the blond girl dancing with one of her friends, someone she'd known from Signal if Ruby remembered right. Dressed in a modest but form hugging white dress, Ruby could spot a handful of guys and girls eyeing Yang with interest, even as she herself glared childishly at the amused blonde.

She let out a whine as she took another step towards the punch bowel, her balance in a precarious state right now.

Pausing as to avoid falling over like a dunce, Ruby risked a look back towards the table she'd initially come from.

There, Weiss sat in her own white dress, somewhat similar to Yang's yet clearly different with the uppermost part of it as well as the overall length, talking quite animatedly with a guy that was named Neptune, if Ruby remembered right. If she also remembered right, the blue haired guy had come to the dance with that other guy from the pier incident – Sun, she thinks his name was. And boy oh boy, unlike Neptune who'd dressed appropriately for the dance, Sun was wearing pretty much the same thing he usually wore outside of class, just with a tie and a black unbuttoned shirt instead of the usual white one.

And speaking of that…

Ruby sighed heavily.

Sun was trying – and failing – to talk to one near despondent looking Blake, the B of team RWBY dressed up in a classy dark purple dress. Despite having dressed for the occasion, Blake sure hadn't shown any real enthusiasm for the dance and had really only come because the others had refused to leave her be alone.

…Something had happened. That much went without saying, really. Ruby had no idea what, but several days ago, Blake had simply taken off during combat class and had later been found by her, Weiss, and Yang back in their dorm, looking utterly crushed over something that she refused to talk to them about.

Said girl was doing marginally better than that first day, but still… whatever it was, it was very much gnawing at her, causing her to respond to Sun's conversation attempts with dull and unfocused one-word answers.

Sun kept at it though, looking concerned the whole time, something Ruby could admire; most other people in his position would've long since gotten frustrated and given up. She could also spot Weiss and Neptune shooting Blake furtive and worried glances too on occasion.

"Everything alright there, Ruby?"

Ruby let a 'meep!' and nearly fell back, but a hand reached out to grab her and help her stand back up properly.

Face flushed from embarrassment, Ruby looked up to see Jeanne and her team. Said team leader was dressed in a simple black dress with some transparent black mesh over the top of it along with black leggings. The girl had a brilliant looking blue flower in her hair, which really stood out from all the black.

"Thanks. And I'm okay," Ruby responded with a sheepish smile. "Just not used to these things." She raised and clacked one of the heels onto the floor as if to accentuate her point.

She then tilted her head to the side in order to get a good look at the rest of team JNPR, taking note of the clothes they'd chosen to wear to this dance. Her silver eyes couldn't help but go wide at Pyrrha's modest but form fitting red dress along with the barest hints of make-up she wore to appear a bit more mature. Hard to believe the redhead had come here without a date when she looked like _that_.

Same could honestly be said of Jeanne too, certainly not lacking in charms despite her dress – in Ruby's humble opinion – looking more like something fit for a Halloween styled event. Of course, despite her short height, with such, ah, _generous_ endowments, it probably wouldn't matter much if the blond leader's dress was season appropriate.

Inwardly, Ruby very slightly mumbled in despair to herself. Sure, Jeanne may be two years older than her, but for there to be such a difference 'there' and in the rest of the body's curves… Ruby had to wonder just what was up with her fellow leader's genetics.

"That's good… but seriously, is everything okay?" Jeanne asked again. She motioned towards Blake at the table.

At that, Ruby could only sigh. "…Dunno. She's been in some kind of funk for a few days now and we have no idea why. She's doing better though, for what it's worth."

She saw complicated expressions on the entirety of team JNPR at her response, but while she appreciated the concern, there sadly wasn't much to be done until Blake opens up about whatever is bugging her.

"Well, it's our hope that bringing her here would help her out somehow," she then said sheepishly.

Despite how formally dressed they all were, there was no denying the relaxed and happy atmosphere of the room, all of its occupants talking and drinking and dancing and laughing and in general just having a good time, finally able to relax after these past weeks of training and other serious work.

Jeanne hummed. "I see. Hope it works," she said with a small smile.

Ruby returned the gesture.

The dance had started officially at six-thirty, but everyone didn't fully arrive until about fifteen minutes after, due to the sheer number of people that had wanted to come. Now that it was a bit past seven, the dance had perhaps just barely gotten into full swing or at least was well on its way in doing so.

So taking this moment to survey the room and reestablish her balance yet again, Ruby turned back to team JNPR. She blinked as she did so – Nora and Ren were gone. And a split second later, she heard an all too familiar giddy yell.

Sure enough, Nora was already on the dance floor, having dragged along Ren with her, the young man looking as tired and resigned as he usually did. But as Nora started to all but swing him around to the beat of the current fast-paced song, Ruby swore she could see the R of team JNPR smiling in amusement. Heck, she might have even heard him chuckle!

"Wow…" she muttered.

Both Jeanne and Pyrrha shared a laugh. "If even Ren can loosen up this quickly, I'm sure the same will eventually happen with Blake," commented the latter, the tall redhead briefly glancing at Ruby before turning away.

Ruby blinked and then narrowed her eyes in wonder as she realized something. During the past minute or so, Pyrrha had been unusually quiet. At first, she'd thought maybe the redhead was bummed out over not having a date – something that still boggled Ruby's mind, to be honest – but now she could tell that Pyrrha seemed to be actively looking around for someone.

Oho, so who's the lucky guy, she wondered? Or lucky girl – for all she knew, Pyrrha could swing that way, not that it was a problem with her or anything.

And it was around this time that she saw Jeanne looking around too. "Who're you looking for, Jeanne?" Ruby was genuinely curious.

"A-Ah, just looking for my brother," the blonde said.

For her brother, eh? Jaune, eh? "Wow, you really love your brother," Ruby commented with a smile. She seemed oblivious to the expression that now graced Jeanne's in response. Then her face scrunched up in thought. "Come to think of it, a lot of people were mentioning him earlier. Something about having a da-."

Jeanne clamped a hand over her mouth suddenly. Her eyes looked dull and dead. "That's just a rumor. It has to be."

The smile on the blonde's face seemed positively terrifying. So all Ruby could do in response was nod in agreement, an action that seemed to appease her fellow team leader into letting go.

She was halfway tempted to ask her why that'd be the case, but before she could do so-.

-The man in question ended up arriving.

And what an arrival it was.

When the door to the room started to open, a lot of people had spared what was happening a mere cursory glance at first until a now all-too familiar blond man entered, which had then gotten the attention of many more people, if not even the entire room.

And as he fully entered, everyone took note of the arm interlinked with his own, after which the very same woman that had spoken with him earlier today entered the room a mere split second after he did.

Ruby wouldn't lie – her jaw kind of dropped. From beside her, she could hear Pyrrha gasp while Jeanne made some unrecognizable sound.

She was self-aware enough to know she wasn't quite at that age yet to be fully interested in dating and all… but _wow_ , Jaune looked great!

And the woman still linking her arm with his… yeah, she could see why a lot of the other girls felt 'threatened' by her!

When the new couple(?) fast approached the crowd, said crowd went from standing about in genuine surprise to quickly bustling around like they were before, returning to their previous conversations and dances.

"Wow," Jaune could be heard mumbling from afar. His dull blue eyes blinked a few times in surprise. "They really weren't kidding when they said everyone would be here!"

From beside him, the woman looked equally impressed, but laughed in good humor at Jaune's understandably funny expression.

When the blond man in question blushed at his date's(?) laughing, Ruby heard a nerve-wracking cracking sound coming from beside her.

Startled by this, she immediately turned to see what it was.

And there before her stood Pyrrha, her expression blank yet with her green eyes burning with determination and… rage? Desire?! Her hands were balled up into fists and they clenched tightly and emitted that same cracking sound just now.

Ruby wisely stepped away…

Only to nearly bump into Jeanne, who'd moved around to her other side, her expression serious and indignant. If she had her sword, she likely would be drawing it out of its sheath right now.

Once again, Ruby stepped away. Eyeing the two teens cautiously, she opted to move as far away as possible for now until they calm down.

So with an audible gulp, Ruby slowly turned and began her arduous trek back to the table, wobbling all the while.

* * *

Jaune was experiencing a plethora of emotions thus far, all of them intermingling into something that honestly left him reeling to an extent.

Firstly, he was still very much in disbelief he was even attending this dance at all, more so at the very fact he – he, of all people – actually had a _date_.

And with Amber, to top it off too!

That said, he was also feeling genuine happiness. Despite the somewhat awkward way he'd gone about arriving at Amber's room, the ensuing conversation they'd had on the way here in addition to 'seeing' firsthand how much effort was put into this dance had put him in a very good mood.

Still…

Looking around and thanks to his Aura Vision and the abundance of aura around, he was able to 'see' the sort of clothing the students were wearing and he used his free hand to fiddle with his collar. He felt oddly underdressed with the lack of a jacket and his sleeves rolled up.

He was feeling tempted to maybe find a private spot and briefly have Tenebrous provide a jacket to complete his look, but with this many people, that may be impossible unless he slipped away outside or something.

But his thoughts were cut off when he felt Amber tug on his arm. "Come on," she said. He could hear the eagerness in her voice, see it permeate throughout her aura, sending rhythmic ripples throughout it.

She'd slipped out of their arm link to grab hold of his left hand with her right. She pulled tightly, but not harshly, leading him to the dance floor.

He couldn't help but laugh a bit at how excited she was, like a kid almost. He then smiled apologetically to the people currently dancing that were forced to part to make room for him and Amber to go through.

Reaching a fairly open spot, Amber let go of his hand and stood just a few feet away from him, arms raised. "Nothing like a fast-paced song to kick things off, right?!"

Jaune chuckled even as he patted down his clothes, making sure they were in place still. Sure, said 'clothes' was really his friend in disguise, but it was a little tick of his from years ago, whenever he often got nervous.

And that's exactly what he was feeling now: nervous.

Dancing right off the bat? He worried if he was still any good at it. It's been several years since he's last danced, even longer since he's done so around people that weren't family and in a more formal setting, even if the atmosphere here was pretty casual and happy. He didn't know why exactly he stopped dancing, but he sure hoped he wasn't about to make a fool of himself right now.

But hey, no way to find out unless he tried, right?

"Well, if you insist…" he began, his smile growing.

"I very much do," Amber responded instantly, an almost challenging smirk on her face. She wiggled her fingers as the song began to pick up even more in speed. "Now let's start while we still have a chance!"

"Ha… alright then."

Jaune took just a single second to listen to the song playing, its beat filling his ears. Its rhythm went from being one he was completely unfamiliar with to one he now knew he could move to.

So just as the beat paused for a split second longer than usual, he waited until the last possible instant before it started up again.

And just as the beat continued, he moved, all but lunging forward and taking Amber's open hands into his own. He'd be lying if he were to say he didn't enjoy how Amber yelped like a schoolgirl in surprise.

And in the span of yet another split second, him and Amber were moving, _dancing_. He spun around initially, taking the lead as he blitzed across the dance floor. Due to the height difference between him and Amber, he'd ended up literally sweeping her off her feet as he lifted her up to his level during his spins.

It wasn't until after a fourth spin that he finally lowered her to the floor and she all but hit it running. Her initial shock now seemed to mix with delight as she quickly caught onto his next move.

Holding onto her right hand with his own, he let Amber practically stretch as far away from him as her arm would allow before the woman began to pivot and spin her way back towards him, whom he accepted with open arms before dipping her nearly halfway towards the floor.

As he did this and then lifted her back up in accordance to the beat, Jaune was only vaguely aware of plenty of the students around letting out gasps of surprise along with a few 'whoa!'s of amazement. Instead, all he could focus on was the song and Amber, her aura all but brimming with surprise and joy.

They lulled just a bit in order to speak. "W-Wow," Amber stuttered out from her spot in his arms. She was still sort of leaning towards the floor, but Jaune made sure to keep her at a fairly high level in case his grip on her somehow slipped. "Didn't know you were hiding this kind of talent… so what else can you show me?"

A small blush made its way across his face; her voice had sounded just a tad bit sultry with those last words. But he could only smile eagerly, feeling more than ready to accept her challenge now that he knew he wasn't as rusty as he'd thought.

"You're about to find out," he couldn't help but comment confidently.

And as if by some unspoken command in his voice, the song itself seemed to change. It remained just as fast-paced as before, if not even more so, but Jaune noticed it was still different. Sounded even more energy-pumping than before. Simply spinning her around now wouldn't do.

Good thing, however, he'd also practiced Latin dancing back in the day.

Time to show it off.

Laughing at Amber's cry of 'W-Whaaa-?!' as he immediately went onto the next dance, Jaune could only really note one thing.

He hasn't had this much fun in years. How he'd missed this. And now it was more than the perfect time to make up for all that time lost.

* * *

From the very corner of the whole room, Cinder watched how things played out.

All eyes were on none other than her two most dangerous foes – Jaune Arc and the Fall Maiden. And while being in such close proximity to those two was honestly something to worry over, the young woman felt no such emotion in this case.

Perhaps that encounter with that entity had left her a little emotionally numb in some respect or maybe she was just too focused now to even care. In any case, now was perhaps her best opportunity.

She'd arrived in her chosen backless black dress alongside Emerald and Mercury at roughly the same time a lot of the other students had come to the dance and since then she'd made sure to make some idle chatter and sample the drinks here in order to make herself seem as being part of the crowd. She'd made sure her two 'teammates' had done the same thing.

She'd been wise to do so, for alongside some of the walls as well as outside the building itself were Atlas soldiers, fully dressed in their armor and gear and more than ready to move if needed. She'd felt some of their eyes on her and the other two during the evening so far, but now they couldn't help but be enraptured by the dancing of Arc and the maiden alongside the rest of the students, who'd cleared the dance floor in order to give the happy couple all the space they could ever need.

That wasn't to say all eyes were no longer on her – there were two soldiers standing along the adjacent wall that she could feel the intense and scrutinizing eyes of from time to time. Furthermore, there was that girl – the robot, Penny Polendina – that was standing there in awe amongst the crowd as she too watched the dancing couple. She was flanked by two guards that were no doubt meant to ensure their prized pet project was safe, but thanks to where exactly the three of them were standing, it'd be so terribly easy for them to turn and spot her if she made any drastic moves.

Which she could admit would be equally easy on her part to given her wheelchair (she'd gotten tired of her crutches). But that didn't mean this wouldn't be impossible.

In fact, this might actually be much easier than she'd thought. Thanks to being in a wheelchair, she was naturally in a sitting position, so if she were to wheel herself forward and try merging into the crowd, the guards would lose sight of her amongst all of the obviously standing students. Secondly, her two biggest concerns were busy having the time of their lives dancing away. It was obvious by the sheer intensity of their moves and their stares on one another that they were all but oblivious to the surrounding crowd. And as for that terrifying thing, well, if it was masquerading as Arc's suit as she suspected – the color scheme sort of gave it away to her – then it probably wouldn't try anything with so many people around. Probably.

But in any case, now was the time.

"Get ready," she whispered, her hidden ear bud easily picking up on her two words despite all of the background noise.

"Yes, ma'am," came Emerald's reply.

"Got it," spoke Mercury.

Of her two lackeys, only Emerald was still here at the dance with her. As for the latter, Mercury had excused himself early under the premise of the caviar having not agreed with his constitution.

While not exactly the best skill among his entire skillset, Mercury was fairly decent actor and when backed up by Emerald's semblance, he'd been able to leave the dance roughly ten minutes ago without any hassle from anyone, let alone the guards.

The plan had been most simple – for Mercury to leave under this guise of being sick, head back to the dorms, only to then sneak out the back way and cut across to where the bullheads were docked. There, he'd sneak into the smallest and nearest one and have it sitting there idle until she and Emerald arrived.

Overall, Mercury's part had been fairly easy, for while he wasn't exactly the subtlest of assassins, stealth was still something that came to him easily enough. The only speedbump was that drone she'd discovered watching them a few days back. However, once she'd realized it was there, she'd discovered it wouldn't watch them all the time, only doing so when they left the dorms and only watching them for half an hour at a time before leaving, possibly to be refueled or something.

Keeping track of it had been a pain, but it had paid off, with Mercury's quick return to the dorm coinciding with the drone's leaving. Now they had approximately twenty minutes tops before the drone returns.

Time to get going.

With a small smirk that belied her urgency, Cinder began to wheel herself forward.

* * *

The guard to the left side of the wall was the first to notice their target move. A quick and subtle tap to his partner ensured he saw the woman moving too.

In silence, they watched her wheel herself forward, leaving them uncertain about what to do until they realized she was moving towards the crowd.

At which point, they moved.

Not wanting to raise any kind of panic, however, they made sure to move as quietly yet as quickly as possible, mingling with the crowd of students even as said students kept on watching that couple dance, the song having changed to something a bit more grand and slow.

By this point, the surveillance target had entered the crowd, noted by how the crowd slightly parted to accommodate the fact she was in a wheelchair.

The two guards moved to intercept or at least gain visual of her, but it was hard to do with so many students huddled together.

But they persevered until they saw her again – heading for the bathroom. It looks like the woman had merely been cutting through the crowd to get to the ladies' room, it would seem.

Sighing in relief – they'd been worried she was about to try something – the two guards proceeded to slowly stand back, watching until their target entered the bathroom, at which point they fully backed off for now.

The bathroom, while large, had no windows or any other means of escape. So unless the woman was going to bust down a wall, there was no way she was leaving the premises.

Certain of this, they stood back and allowed themselves to enjoy watching the blond guy dance with his bewitching companion.

At least until the target came back, of course; they weren't slackers, after all.

* * *

Emerald let out a breath that was equal parts relief and fatigue.

She'd been among the crowd of students watching Arc and the maiden dance up until Cinder gave the go-ahead.

At that point, she'd waited silently, using her semblance to mask herself from the guard's vision until Cinder reached her. Once that had occurred, she'd leaned forward a little as she pushed Cinder's wheelchair, having then used her semblance to make the guards believe the woman had been going to the bathroom when in reality, the two of them had slipped out the back way, which led them to an entirely different building – some of the buildings on this campus were directly connected – before quickly exiting it.

Now the two of them – or rather just her, since she was pushing the wheelchair while Cinder sat back – were making their way across Beacon's grounds directly towards the bullheads.

While they were out of sight of the guards at the dance, there were still a handful of guards patrolling the grounds, but again thanks to her semblance, it'd be a simple matter of making them think there was nothing there in order for them to slip on by in case they came across anyone.

The only real concern now was the drone, but Cinder had told her that it'd be another twenty minutes or so before it returns to track them down. So now, it was simply a matter of getting the hell out of here before the guards back at the dance finally got suspicious over how long Cinder was supposedly taking in the bathroom.

Still, she worried. "Shouldn't we be worrying about the headmaster and his inner circle too?" Emerald decided to ask out of the blue.

"Ordinarily, I'd say yes, but with all of the preparations they seemed to have been making recently, there's simply too much paperwork for them to do now," Cinder answered.

Emerald blinked. "Paperwork? Seriously?"

"Yes. Given whatever they've been up to recently, all of the things that come with being headmaster of an academy or general of a military have no doubt been piling up. As much as they'd like to dedicate all of their time to whatever their current goal is, they do have other responsibilities that can't be shirked. It's as simple as that and I'm not going to be complaining about it."

"Right…" Emerald muttered in agreement yet with a sense of disbelief. To think that was the reason why Ozpin and his pals weren't much of a danger to them tonight. It boggled the mind, honestly.

But like Cinder just said, she wasn't going to complain about it if it meant being away from this place.

And sure enough, the bullhead docks came into view. A quick transmission to Mercury was all it took to pinpoint which one they get on and Emerald wasted no time getting to it, even breaking out into a dash that caused Cinder's wheelchair to tilt back a bit.

Her master shot her an annoyed look, but for once Emerald could only chuckle to herself under that withering gaze.

The three of them were now going to be free of this place. And with any luck, they'll never see Beacon again. More importantly, they'll never see that _thing_ again.

Or so she hoped.

* * *

Tenebrous let out a silent hum to itself.

Almost an hour has passed since its Apostle and the Fall Maiden had arrived to this dance. That meant almost an hour has passed since the two had begun to indulge themselves in the merriment to be found in dancing.

The god had to admit it'd been rather surprised when Jaune had first approached it about this event earlier today, the blond having politely requested it to serve as formal clothes if it were possible. Which, of course, had been more than possible.

While still not the keenest on emotions, Tenebrous could understand the reason behind the dance and saw no reason to deprive its Apostle of it. It had deprived him of many things ever since they first met and 'feeling bad' was something it'd come to be capable of feeling in short order after their initial encounter, even if it had a hard time expressing this even now.

Still, it could feel something akin to amusement at how much joy Jaune and Amber were deriving from this. It had even found itself rather impressed by Jaune's dancing skills, having forgotten its Apostle was capable of such moves.

But its amusement had ceased when Cinder and her two minions had made their move. Alas, there was very little it could do without drawing attention to itself and especially to Jaune. For if it had decided to intercept the three pawns, it would've ended up leaving Jaune clad in only his boxers and socks since forming itself as formal clothes over Jaune's usual clothes would've made its Apostle feel uncomfortably tight in two layers of clothes, hence why he had to strip down. Embarrassing Jaune at something like this simply would not do and thus it did nothing.

Oh well. In all honesty, perhaps letting those three go had been for the best. From what it could tell, the three pawns had held no hostile or malicious intentions and given their lack of resources and power, it's not as if there was much they could do anyways. And if it were correct in assuming the three were now heading back to Salem, it highly doubted the Mind was going to welcome them with open arms. Even if she did and ended up finding some use for them, Tenebrous couldn't imagine said 'use' being for anything too impressive or impactful.

So much like its Apostle and champion, it decided to merely enjoy itself for the time being, even if such an emotion was still alien to it. Still, there was something rather 'fun' about seeing him interact with Amber, hearing their good-natured barbs – flirting, it believed it was really called – towards one another before finally deciding to stop dancing for now to get something to drink.

But not before the two were subject to an absolutely massive round of applause from the surrounding students. Tenebrous could literally feel the surprise and slight embarrassment from its Apostle and from the Fall maiden who nonetheless thanked and bowed to the crowd before they finally moved.

After that, Tenebrous sort of zoned out, listening to the people around it and Jaune as they now took to the dance floor or continued on with previous conversations. Some of the students even went around flirting with others.

It watched as Jaune and Amber chatted animatedly about their dancing just now, the latter more than surprised and amazed by the former's moves. Jaune was blushing at the praise, but nonetheless ate it up and returned the praise to Amber as well, all but applauding how flexible she'd been during some of the more intense songs playing.

Amber blushed at that and Tenebrous was quite certain at that moment that Jaune's choice of words had perhaps been a little poor if the sheer intensity of said blush was anything to go by. Not for the first time, the Power pondered the quickly growing relationship between its Apostle and the maiden. They really were 'hitting it off' or at least it thought so.

But their chat was broken off just a little later after sitting down at an unoccupied table when Jaune's sister approached them.

"Great to see you still have the moves, bro!" spoke Jeanne. "Think you and I can share a dance or two? It's been a long while since we last danced together, you know…"

The girl spoke that with a slight blush and a bit of nervousness, Tenebrous sensed. But its Apostle didn't seem to pick up on that and instead turned to Amber, being most considerate of the woman's own feelings on the matter despite his obvious desire to spend time with his dear sister. Tenebrous saw Amber smile and nod in complete understanding. "Go on ahead; I'll be resting for a bit… the dancing tired me out more than I thought it would."

That seemed to be all Jaune needed to nod to her and then turn to his sister, whom he regarded most enthusiastically now. "Lead on, sis!"

The god could sense the joy from the two siblings as they walked onwards to the dance floor, where other people had gathered to dance to what appeared to be a hip-hop song.

Side by side, both blondes danced away in perfect sync, shouting and laughing alongside the rest of the dancing students to the beat. Tenebrous could not recall a time ever seeing the two looking this happy here at Beacon thus far and their combined joy seemed to be triggering something within it.

Were it in its physical form, the same one it had taken during its reluctant fight with Amber all those weeks ago, Tenebrous would dare say it'd be _smiling_ , if only a little bit.

Here and now, its Apostle, the sister, and all the other students regardless if they were dancing or not, were filled with happiness and joy, the past few weeks of physical and psychological stress being washed away by this overpowering surge of coalescing emotion.

Even Blake Belladonna, who'd been in a serious funk this past week thanks to her conversation with Jaune, seemed to eventually lighten up a bit when she was dragged onto the dance floor by the fiery Yang Xiao-Long and Sun Wukong, both of whom had seemed to have enough of her dismal state despite not knowing the reason for it. Even though it could still feel the warring emotions within her, the wave of positive emotion in this place was having an impact upon her, relieving her of her pain just a little bit, enough to smile and laugh a little as the two blondes by her side forced her into an awkward dance.

Not even the guards, ever so serious and dedicated to their duties, seemed capable of outright ignoring what was going on. Through the crowd, it could actually spot a few of them tapping their feet to the beat.

That strange creature – the robot named Penny Polendina – that had been hanging back, had what could only be called the goofiest of smiles on her face as she did a little shuffle of the feet and rolling her arms together, an action that got some nearby students laughing at her, not out of any malicious intent, but rather in good humor, clearly enjoying the awkwardness. They even joined in on it, much to Penny's surprise and delight.

 _Yes…._

This one word was spoken aloud, almost unconsciously so, but thankfully no one seemed to notice it, so lost in the festivities.

Through its 'eyes' that shifted all over Jaune's 'clothes,' Tenebrous continued to watch as the night played out.

It watched as Ruby Rose finally managed to get enough of a balance in her heels to approach Penny and join her shuffle.

It watched as Weiss Schnee was escorted onto the dance floor by a shy looking teen with blue hair, the former laughing in good humor as her escort proceeded to dance about haphazardly. Said boy looked thoroughly embarrassed of himself, but smiled nonetheless.

It watched as Blake Belladonna was spun back forth by Yang Xiao Long and that boy Sun Wukong from the docks, the black-haired girl loosening up with every passing moment. The blondes smiled with ever greater joy upon seeing the effect they were having upon her.

It watched as Jeanne danced with her brother, its Apostle. The girl was laughing and overall acting as if she were several years younger and so was Jaune, the siblings no doubt thinking back to their younger days as kids, before anything of this nature ever burdened them.

It watched Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren finally take a break from dancing to indulge in something to drink. Or rather, it was more like the latter indulged in a simple drink while the former seemed intent on chugging the entire bowel in one go, several students nearby spurring her on. Lie Ren looked exasperated, but there was no mistaking the smile on his face nor the relaxed slump of his shoulders and stance as he leaned against the wall.

It watched as Pyrrha Nikos approached the blond siblings during their current dance, boldly cutting in and taking Jaune's open left hand just as he spun Jeanne around with his right hand. In the span of a few seconds, the blond young man was now effectively dancing with two teenaged girls instead of just one.

Jeanne looked shocked and indignant and tried to assert some measure of control over this three-way dance, attempting to occupy her brother's attention.

But Pyrrha merely smirked in challenge and used her greater height and agility to maneuver herself into Jaune's surprised arms almost every time.

Jeanne would whine almost every time, but there was nothing genuinely upset about her tone. If anything, she too seemed to be enjoying this odd challenge and would use her own surprising skill in dancing, which was far superior to even Pyrrha's skill in this matter, to circle around and get close to her brother, eliciting laughter and cheers from all around as she and her partner essentially had a dance-off, of which Jaune was trying to simultaneously dance to both sides of with impressive success.

Tenebrous watched all of this intently and with genuine emotion slowly yet steadily building up within it.

This… this was what it and Jaune sought to protect, what they were fighting for.

It may not have ever really shown it in any understandable way, not even to itself, but Tenebrous genuinely loved humanity. It was why it and its other half had tried so hard to guide them into accepting their own darkness, all for the sake of being the very best they could be, not unlike how parents want their children to be the best they can be. Their methods obviously had not been the most effective, but they had never once meant humanity any genuine harm even though that is most tragically how things had ended up as.

But now was a chance to make that change, to make a difference for the better. It and its other half had hoped and that hope had taken on the forms of both Salem and Jaune. Salem may have turned out to be a lost cause most spectacularly, but Jaune still remained.

A 'hero,' the young man had wanted to be. Oh, if only Jaune had known just how much that desire of his had correlated with what was to come.

Tenebrous had never once lied to Jaune nor to others, but it had held back details on occasion. And in Jaune's case, it had held back just one.

All his life, the young man had wanted to be a hero. And through all of this, that is what he would undoubtedly become.

But Jaune… the young man was going to be more than just a 'hero.' He will be a 'Savior,' someone to guide humanity to a better era.

Just as Salem had gone from an Apostle to the new Mind as had initially been the intention – albeit under far better and more preferable circumstances – Jaune was to become something more than just an Apostle.

Something more than even a _god_.

The god felt sorry, genuinely sorry. It had never really meant to hide this from Jaune, but its Apostle's growth had been top priority, outweighing almost all else.

And now with the Trial so very soon to be upon them, it was time for his growth to start showing its worth. And for it to finally culminate into what would undoubtedly be what it and its departed other half had _truly_ been hoping for all this time, what their artificial Apostle from long ago had ultimately been a mere shadow of:

A Savior that would show them all the way out of darkness.

…

…

Now if only Pyrrha would somehow tone down those hormones of hers – they were so high in number and potency right now that even Tenebrous was starting to worry for Jaune's chastity.

* * *

The dance lasted hours, well until around midnight. By the time all of the students and guards started to leave, it was with smiles on their faces, the tension that had been building up within them over the past few weeks all but gone.

Jaune counted himself among this 'destressed' group, feeling much lighter than he's ever felt in what had to be ages.

"Had some fun?" Amber asked from beside him as they walked back. Jaune was escorting her back to her room, their arms once more linked and with the two of them looking far more at ease around one another than ever before.

"Yeah," he answered easily. "I did."

After having danced with his sister and Pyrrha, he'd excused himself for a while to drink and overall take a bit of a break. During this time, he'd sat by Amber and had chatted with her for a while. The two of them had even spent more than a bit of time simply watching and laughing alongside the dancing students, most of whom had gotten more than a little silly during this interim, doing the stupidest and goofiest dance moves ever.

Then when some of the students had challenged the duo to a dance-off, Jaune and Amber had complied and spent the rest of the time showing the students just who reigned supreme as the lords of dance.

It had genuinely been a magical night.

"…Thank you," Jaune then found himself saying.

"Hm?" His sudden thanks seemed to have caught Amber by surprise. "For what?"

"For this. I don't think I've felt this relaxed and happy in a while. To think I was planning to spend the evening just training and whatnot." Jaune laughed. "Seriously, thank you, Amber. Sorry you had to essentially kick me in the butt to get me to come though."

Amber snickered. "Well, what can I say? Sometimes, there are people that just wouldn't know fun unless it bit them. You just happened to be one such person." Despite her rather nonchalant reply, her aura rippled with happiness. "You're welcome, Jaune. And thank you as well for being my date to this."

He smiled. "The pleasure was all mine."

After that, the two of them walked in silence back to Amber's room. During this time, Jaune couldn't help but feel amazed at how today had turned out.

What would've been an otherwise uneventful day for him had turned out to be the exact opposite… and in a way that could only be described as unforgettable. The sheer happiness and delight that everyone had been feeling as they started to unwind, all coalescing before his very eyes… never would he have imagined ever bearing witness to such a beautiful sight.

It'd been like looking at a newborn star up close and personal and if he was being honest with himself, it'd nearly made him cry with its beauty, especially when he'd realized at some point during the dance that he was a part of it.

If anyone knew the sort of situation they all were in, what with the Trial and the true history behind humanity and 'Faunus' and the Grimm, they'd likely be overwhelmed to know they were a part of such a grand thing.

But to Jaune, to know he'd been a part of this figurative star tonight was the true overwhelming sensation. Ever since he'd obtained his Aura Vision, aura and by extension all living things had become so breathtaking to him. And whenever a lot of people gathered and experienced similar emotions strongly, it'd be like looking at a master artist creating a grand painting. And in all those cases, never would he have imagined he'd have joined in on such a grand masterpiece.

It was things like this that made it worth fighting for. It was times like tonight that allowed him to be so unbothered by all of the revelations and duties that had been heaped onto his shoulders ever since he first met Tenebrous.

Yes, it was for events like this, where everyone partook in the sharing of friendship and love and joy that made it easy, perhaps a little _too_ easy some would say, for him to just shrug off the troubles and existential crisis-inducing bombshells he'd endured.

This is why he and Tenebrous wish for humanity to overcome the Trial so strongly.

"And now that this is all done… it's time for the Trial, isn't it?" Amber suddenly asked softly.

"Yes…" was his simple response, spoken just as softly.

This dance had been everyone's last chance to fully unwind before the Trial was to start. And with the Trial would undoubtedly come bloody battles and more than a few casualties. And all at the hands of a woman to whom joy could only come at the expense of all others.

Truly, the Trial would be a perfect contrast to tonight's event.

All the more reason to oppose Salem and her forces with everything they have, to ensure that more times like tonight can keep on occurring.

This was Jaune's resolution and he could tell that Amber felt the exact same way without her so much as uttering a single sound, the maiden instead clutching onto his arm much more firmly yet devoid of any harshness or worry.

Despite himself, he couldn't help but smile just a little bit at this.

A dark and horrible time was on the horizon, but Jaune felt that humanity was more than ready to beat it back.

Time to put an end to all of this for good.

* * *

 **19 pages and nearly 10,000 words! In all honesty, I kind of thought this chapter would turn out longer. Heh, probably because I decided to leave out the viewpoints of Salem and Adam. Initially, I had intended to put them into this chapter, if only to show their own resolutions, but then decided against it – Salem's 'resolve' pretty much goes without saying thanks to the reveal of her and Ozpin's past and Adam, well, he was never exactly the most complex character to figure out to begin with, even with my own few attempts to give him a bit more character.**

 **Besides, putting them in this chapter would've screwed up the 'last big hurrah' feel that I was trying to go for with this dance.**

 **Speaking of which, hope the entire dance scene turned out good! Especially the more emotional aspect of it all – emotion on such a scale is something I feel I'm lacking at when writing it out so I hope my attempts at it were sufficient.**

 **Whelp, up next, the Trial will finally begin! The beginning of the end is finally here, so I hope you will enjoy what's left!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	42. Chapter 42

Sorry for the wait! The most recent chapter I wrote for my novel ended up being longer than I had originally planned, much longer. But perhaps it was something I should've expected given the part of the story I'm getting to. Heh, me and my lack of foresight.

Whelp, this is it – the beginning of the end! This chapter finally marks the start of the Trial that I've been hyping up for chapters on end now. Time to follow through on it and give you guys the action and twists that I've been promising! Hope that I'm able to meet your expectations!

While I can't exactly say how many chapters are left now, I can at least say that there's a good several to go before I even get to the epilogue, most likely even more than that depending on how much content I want to put into each chapter after this one. And given the surprises I still have in store, the few final chapters will likely be quite lengthy, at least by the standards I've set for my fics.

In any case, you can expect these finals chapters to be longer than previous ones to varying degrees so it may take even longer than usual to update. Hope this isn't a problem.

Now then, onto the chapter!

P.S. Saw No Game No Life Zero! Loved it to hell and back! Seriously, it was incredibly well-done. Definitely recommend it to anyone interested!

Chapter 42

Salem sat back in her throne-like chair within her castle, completely alone as she's always been.

If anyone at all were there, they might have looked upon her almost ghostly form and assumed her to be in a deep sleep. And in a way, she was, her mind filled with dream-like memories from the long distant past.

Memories of who she'd once been. Of Ozpin and their so-called friendship. Of that man's betrayal of her and the agony it had brought her.

For all this time, these memories had bothered her and spurned her on, fueling her rage and actions. And now it was time to put them to rest.

Along with the rest of humanity.

Finally awakening, Salem found herself looking out the window of the room, up at the broken moon, shattered long ago by Tenebrous in a misguided attempt to make humanity from back then unite against a greater power.

Although this corner of the world – _her_ corner of the world – had long since been distorted by her very presence and semblance leaving it impossible for the sun to be visible from her, the Mind knew very well that it would soon be dawn.

As the last few minutes until the sun began to rise for the rest of Remnant, Salem could literally feel her sphere of control expand. Grimm that she hadn't been able to link to due to distance now began to connect to her and she felt her mind begin to encroach upon them.

Taking a deep breath that left her shuddering from something akin to pleasure, she closed her eyes for a brief moment as a result.

When she opened them a few seconds later, the red irises were glowing far more ominously than they ever have before while the blackened sclera of her eyes seemed even darker than before too.

A wide and vicious smile unlike anything she's ever shown before now appeared on her face.

"It's time."

* * *

Adam took a deep breath as the sun began to rise, its light quick to bathe him.

Everything was ready, as indicated by the small legion of White Fang soldiers flanking either side of his, awaiting his order to climb aboard the several bullheads they've long ago obtained. Atop said bullheads were but a few of the fused Grimm that Salem had provided him.

Weapons were being excitedly polished at this last minute, many of the men he's gathered now just as eager to get this started.

He most certainly couldn't blame them. He was just as eager to start the attack as well, the other forces across the kingdoms awaiting his word as well.

But he held off on giving such an order. Not out of any cold feet – far from it. No, he merely wished to give the world just this last minute to enjoy the slowly rising sun. One small mercy, if one could call it that. Even then, only the early risers would be able to appreciate it.

Oh well, not his problem.

A small and dark smile crossed his face as he took out his scroll and opened a line to the other units across Remnant awaiting his word.

"It's time," was all he said.

Those two words… that was all it took to garner a rallying war cry from everyone around him before they all began to move about in a flurry, boarding the bullheads as the engines roared to life.

Adam then motioned to the Grimm and they gave a brief cry before responding to his mental command, being the first to take to the skies and fly directly for the city of Vale off in the seeable distance.

Watching his creatures fly off at breakneck speeds, Adam allowed himself a small chuckle.

It was almost hard to believe that it was finally happening, but nonetheless….

"It's time!" he uttered to himself as he headed for the bullhead.

Feeling something horrible and dark well up within him, he relished the feeling though he knew not why he felt this way or where exactly within him it was coming from.

Not that it mattered.

After all… it's time. Time to burn down the world and build a new one.

* * *

Sitting atop the roof of one of Beacon's larger buildings, Jaune had his eyes closed, listening to the confused flurry of activity occurring all across campus.

Students and teachers alike had been informed the previous night to be up early and combat ready. Having not been able to come up with much of a cover story, Ozpin and the others had simply told them all to prepare for a massive wave of Grimm spotted on the horizon just some time yesterday afternoon.

Needless to say, it was something that had rattled the students a fair bit, if only due to how sudden it all was, but they'd complied without issue, the dance from just some time back having allowed them all to vent whatever pent up feelings they'd had.

In other words, the dance had rendered them rather compliant, which had worked out for them all.

Already, more than a dozen fourth year teams along with some of the teachers had been dispatched to form a perimeter alongside Ironwood's soldiers around Vale, with third year and second year teams forming smaller perimeters within the city itself while the first years and a handful of other teachers surrounded Beacon itself.

Ozpin was to remain here for now while serving as a commander alongside Ironwood, the two of them currently in the massive ship hovering more or less over Beacon, casting a shadow over the entire academy and part of the surrounding forest.

As for him? Well, he and Amber were sort of mobile combatants, not having any real spot they need to be at. Instead, the two of them – three, when counting Tenebrous – were to provide support to any area where the Grimm may be giving the people there too much trouble.

Glynda, Peter, and Bart were also serving this very same role for the most part, though the three elite teachers would be focusing on the foremost perimeter.

They would not be the last line of defense, the three had said earlier before heading out. Something Jaune could understand quite well since no one liked having others serve as the first to potentially fall while they just wait elsewhere.

Finally opening his eyes now, Jaune was subject to the sight of dozens of bright shining lights – aura – as everyone here in Beacon prepared for battle. Despite their general confusion and worry, he could see their determination, ready to fight to their last breaths if need be.

He could only admire such spirit, though he most certainly hoped that 'last breath' would never come. But realistically… he knew it'd be inevitable.

Looking further off into the distance, where the city of Vale lied, he could see even more lights, numbering in the hundreds. The sight of these lights all coalescing together into a veritable star was enough to make him unconsciously clench his hands into fists.

He was reminded once more of what he was fighting for and in response he could feel his own spirit soar.

That was when he felt a nudge from beside him and when he turned, it was to see the now all too familiar aura of Amber there.

The Fall Maiden hefted up her scroll and gave it a few shakes. "Everyone's in place. All that's left is the last of the general's paladins getting here, but given the time frame…" She trailed off.

Jaune could only nod.

As much as Ironwood had tried to hurry things up, only so much could be done to prepare all the weaponry he'd all but demanded.

Oh well. What they currently had on hand would have to serve. It would have to be enough.

Sparing a glance down to the area directly in front of the building he and Amber were atop, he could see the auras of teams JNPR and RWBY, all of them combat ready. Alongside the two teams, he could spot that guy, Sun Wukong, along with his team standing beside them. To the other side, he could see the aura of that girl, Penny, along with a few others that he didn't recognize though he imagined they were from Atlas given their proximity to the girl along with their style of battle gear.

Into his eyes, he attempted to burn the sight of his sister into them. Today would be the day if she's able to properly awaken her semblance. He hoped she did, not just for the sake of everyone around, but naturally for herself as well.

 _Jaune… you must get ready to move_.

Humming in response to Tenebrous' almost gentle voice, Jaune finally stood up, standing tall next to Amber, who then used her power to form a staff out of the roof, its sturdy materials making for an equally sturdy battle staff.

"It's time," the blond said quietly.

Then with nary another sound, he and Amber moved, charging forth to meet the incoming storm.

* * *

Jeanne gulped heavily. From somewhere beside her, several other students and even teachers did the same.

Could they really be blamed?

Right there, off in the far distance, a massive wave of Grimm could be seen. No, massive didn't do it justice… it was like staring at a pitch-black sea, one that looked just about ready to become an unstoppable tsunami.

Had this wave really gathered under everyone's nose just yesterday? It was terrifying to think that such a thing was even possible, especially with such a ridiculous number.

Its appearance was just something beyond abnormal, really, and it left her wondering just what it is they've done to earn such a thing.

"T-This might be it…" she couldn't help but mutter. As much as she believed in the strength of her friends, seeing just how many Grimm continued to march forth was beginning to shatter that confidence of hers.

"…Even so, we can't just let it happen," Ren, of all people said strongly. But there was no mistaking the tight and slightly shaking grip he had on Storm Flower.

From beside Ren, Nora slowly reached out and gripped the boy's right hand firmly, which put an end to the shaking just a bit. Jeanne saw him flash his longtime friend a brief but genuine smile.

"Don't worry… we'll all make it through this… somehow," Nora said, the normally lively girl sounding much more subdued. Although she tried to sound bold, there was no mistaking the worry underlying her voice.

"Yes," Pyrrha then said, gripping her own weapon tightly. "We'll all pull through. Together. Right, partner?"

Three sets of eyes turned to look at her and the worry in each of them was enough to nearly make her balk.

But she steeled herself.

As terrified as she was by this sudden turn of events over the past several hours, now was no time to be letting it affect her. She was the leader, damn it! She couldn't be showing any fear or else her friends will just end up worrying even more!

Time to buck up and do what she's been training to do all this time – be a damn leader.

"We will," she said as strongly as she could, careful to smile as confidently and firmly as possible, not allowing her own fear to make it waver. "When you get down to it, it's just like any other Grimm exterminating mission… just with a lot more. So like always, we cover each other's backs and cut them down one by one until there's none left."

The slight shaking her friends were experiencing seemed to go away with her words. Their smiles didn't seem as forced as before and there was a glimmer in their eyes that she couldn't quite identify. "Right!" the three of them said.

Something about the tone of their voices caused her heart to swell and this in turn seemed to bring about a sort of glimmer in her teammates' eyes. It was honestly rather confusing, but Jeanne opted to not waste too much thought on this.

After all, they all were about to have a whole lot more problems than just this oddity.

She just hoped she could now live up to the expectations she'd set for herself.

She had to – she and everyone else will be dead otherwise.

* * *

Ozpin's grip on his cane became quite finicky – tight one moment, loose the next. But how could he not help it given the circumstances? Not even he, the normally cool-headed headmaster of Beacon, could remain completely in control of his emotions.

For he, James, and the soldiers aboard this ship had a far better view of the Grimm from up above than anyone else on the ground below.

And while this provided them with a better idea of the forces they were about to fight, it also meant that he and the others were feeling a hell of a lot more terrified.

"God above…" whispered James from beside him, the general gripping the bars before him with steel-warping force.

Ozpin, for his part, said nothing. Neither did any of the people here in the command post beyond robotically replying to all incoming calls that were confirming the situation.

If the sheer number of Grimm looked like an incoming flood of darkness from below, then from up here it looked as if the seas of the world had all gathered into one and now encroached upon the rest of the land.

That was how many Grimm there were, easily numbering into the hundreds of thousands. Dare he even think it, the number could even be higher.

"…Looks like she intends to simply overwhelm us with sheer numbers," Ozpin finally found it in him to say.

It was an extremely simple tactic, if it could even be called a tactic at all, but such a brute force move would prove quite effective with numbers this great.

"I can see that," James managed to quip back, slowly regaining his composure. Ozpin then watched as the general turned to one of the nearby technicians that helped to run this airship. "Contact squad 2 and tell them to fly overhead and drop some bombs. Maybe it'll split up the initial portion of the wave."

"Yes sir!"

As the person proceeded to do that task, clearly eager to have something to do now, James looked back at him.

"Won't do much good, but it's better than just waiting for them to come to us," the general said.

Ozpin could only nod. With each passing second, the wave was getting much closer. Even from here, he could now begin to make out the collective and nightmarish roar of the Grimm, their united voice promising agony and death.

How much of that roar was just them acting like the animals they were based off of and how much of that was actually Salem transmitting her feelings? It was something he couldn't help but ponder as he and James received news of squad 2 carrying out their orders.

The Atlas military had been very busy these past few weeks and it showed with the bombs now being dropped. Said bombs were made from a very special mixture of highly unstable Dust – just the smallest of disturbances would be enough to set them off and induce dust explosions that could easily span several meters, if not more.

Truly devastating considering how many bombs he could see and hear being dropped, with what had to be dozens of Grimm falling to the clearly visible explosions even from here. If the explosive force of the blast didn't do them in, then the resulting asphyxiation did.

"They're proving most effective, sir!" reported the same technician from a moment ago. The jubilation in his voice was quite apparent.

James nodded and even hummed in approval. "Good. Tell them to keep flying straight over the horde and empty the rest of the bombs. Have another squad fly in as well to provide additional support before any of the Nevermores and Gryphons can get any ideas."

"What about our ground troops and the huntsmen?" asked another technician.

"Tell them to continue holding the line," Ozpin now chipped in. It was perhaps a testament to his influence and level of respect that no one really batted an eye at him suddenly stepping in. "No need to go wandering forth into a crowd that massive."

Said technician gave an affirmative and relayed the simple order to the ground troops.

Ozpin let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. So far, it seemed like things were going okay, but soon that was going to change. He could feel it.

And not even a full ten seconds later, it did.

"S-Sir! Radar is picking up more than a dozen vehicles swiftly approaching Vale!" spoke another technician, a tough looking woman whose high-pitched voice didn't quite match up.

"What? Where exactly are they and are they ours?" James immediately demanded.

Several seconds pass while some of his people work frantically to get those answers. "They're approaching from the west and… they seem to be at an extremely high altitude – nearly 1,000 feet above ground!"

"And are they ours?!" James demanded again. "Can we get a visual somehow?!"

"N-No, I don't think so, si-! Wait, they're starting to descend!" answered one of the technicians. "One of our drones is getting close now for a better look; visual incoming in about a few seconds."

"Put it up on the main screen," James said.

"Yes sir. Should be just another… here it is!"

Turning to the main screen, Ozpin waited for the visual to be put up. And when it was, he felt his breath taken away along with that of everyone else's.

Right there, tagged on the sides of each bullhead, was the symbol of the White Fang.

Ozpin looked to James, the general's mouth agape at the sight. It took him a good second to finally regain his composure.

However, just before he could issue any kind of order, something extremely odd just occurred.

The live feed of the incoming bullheads showed that they all had the side doors opening, allowing for them to see the White Fang troops inside. And vice versa, for one of them had pointed and shouted something at the drone.

Then a second later, something massive had suddenly come from the side, lashing out at the drone. Then the screen went black.

All anyone could do was stare for a minute at the black screen, unable to fully comprehend whatever it was that had just happened.

But Ozpin had managed to get a better glimpse than most at whatever had struck the drone down and it had looked like a Grimm…

…But not like any he's ever seen before and he's encountered just about every type of Grimm during his long life.

So just what in the world had that one been?

But in any case…

"Time to change things around a bit," he murmured, his words managing to snap his friend out of his stupor.

"…Yes," said James, his expression hardening. "Yes indeed."

The presence of the White Fang was quite a surprise, especially since they no doubt had a clear view of the horde of Grimm down below yet didn't seem too surprised by it.

Were they somehow working with Salem? Impossible, the woman hated just about everything. But pawns were always something she could use…

Nonetheless, the presence of the terrorist group during this incoming time meant a lot more trouble – plans would have to be changed and resources would have to be further divvied up somehow.

Something that had James barking out order after order from beside him, the Atlas general looking more rattled and angered than any other time Ozpin could ever recall.

And the call that a technician received just a moment later didn't do much to improve anyone's mood, let alone James'.

"S-Sir…" spoke out the technician.

"What is it now?!" James nearly roared.

"It's Mistral, sir… it's already under siege."

"W-What?! How?!"

Ozpin's grip on his cane tightened dangerously, his mind working a million miles a minute.

He'd thought it was odd how this horde had yet to actually reach Vale by now despite having started to form last night. And now he believed he knew why:

Vale hadn't been the initial target.

"By God…" Ozpin muttered, having a sudden revelation from out of nowhere. "Could it be…? She's saving us for last somehow…"

He had no way to confirm this thought, but something in his gut told him this was true.

And this terrified him all the more.

* * *

Unlike the Grimm horde in Vale, which had taken its time to assemble, the same could not to be said for the ones elsewhere.

In Mistral, the Grimm had come suddenly and sporadically from practically every direction.

At first, they'd been doing their usual thing, stalking through the lands doing nothing in particular unless encountering humans.

But that had all changed when the Trial officially began and the Mind reached out to them. Then in the span of minutes, all of the Grimm had rushed at breakneck speeds towards every single human settlement they could find.

They'd been fast and ferocious as they immediately attacked the ones well out of reach of any reinforcements from the huntsmen and huntresses that had gathered in opposition to their Mind, their queen. Oh, they knew, of course, about the forces that had gathered against them, their Mind's information flooding into them and being used to steer their actions.

That's why they were targeting the places so far into the outskirts first.

Even though the humans had evidently been warned about potential attacks to some extent, judging by how many had seemed to have gathered within more fortified or hidden structures, against so many of them guided by so intelligent a being, the Grimm had been able to easily and quickly overwhelm whatever defenses had been mounted.

In the span of mere moments, screams filled the air and began to echo throughout the land. Men, women, children, young, old, wealthy and poor… all of these things didn't matter to the Grimm. Humans were humans and that is all they targeted, tearing through buildings and forestry to get to their next victims.

Blood quickly began to fill the settlements and even spill out well past said places as many more Grimm simply waded through it, their feet carrying the blood with them. Unfortunate travelers were chased down and crushed beneath rock-possessed Geists or beaten by Beringels.

By the time the forces that had been gathered by Haven's headmaster, Professor Lionheart, realized what was going on and began to mobilize, the Grimm had already managed to gather into a massive wave that was heading straight for them. The few teams that had already been dispatched to go to the settlements' aid were treated to the sight of the growing horde and had been swiftly taken down by the Nevermores that had divebombed at them from higher up in the sky.

The newly formed wave proceeded to march onwards, making their way from the southeast and heading directly for Haven Academy alongside the various police forces that some of the more advanced towns and even cities have established.

The goal was really quite simple now for the Grimm – to utterly crush everything that they come across until nothing was left.

So spoke their Mind and so they would obey without fail.

The fall of humanity begins now.

* * *

To the north, where Atlas lied, the kingdom of technology and weaponry wasn't spared either.

Although the geography of the entire continent made the kingdom rather difficult to approach from outside of its well-fortified walls, that didn't make it impossible. Especially when considering that, much like all other lifeforms, the Grimm located within the continent of Solitas have evolved in order to better overcome the harsh cold climate and mountainous terrain.

Having learned to dig tunnels and pits within the mountains surrounding the entire kingdom, Beowulves and Ursas have in this region have long since adapted, developing bodies better built for climbing and digging their way through just about anything provided they had the time.

But now with the Mind reaching out into them and taking hold, they all moved in perfect unison towards Atlas.

There was a snowstorm going on right now and a terrible one at that, visibility nearly zero. But to the Grimm, this mattered little, their ability to 'see' aura considerably more advanced than their brethren from the other continents. With all the humans in the kingdom lighting the way for them, they huddled towards the walls.

Nearing them, the Grimm crouched low, avoiding the sensors that the walls had as best as possible. Then when they got even closer, many of them proceeded to use their sharper and sturdier claws to cling to the otherwise sheer walls and began to climb. It was mainly the Beowulves that did so while the Ursas and other heavy Grimm began to gather and dig near the bottom of the walls.

Normally, such a thing would take a long time for them to do, but given the ever-increasing number of Grimm gathering into specific spots along the walls' bottoms, it wouldn't take long at all to make a hole for them to get through.

Especially not when the Goliaths in the region, having long since grown bigger and heavier than their kingdom of Vale counterparts in order to avoid having the climate here kill them, began to march their way towards these spots, ready to smash an even bigger opening through the walls once the others have made some progress first.

Meanwhile, up above in the snowing skies, Nevermores of absolute massive sizes – easily rivaling their Goliaths in size with equally ridiculous wingspans – began to gather in an arrow like formation, flying higher and higher into the clouds above until their Mind informed them it was now no longer possible for Atlas' radars to detect them.

Then on her command, they began to turn around and head straight down for the kingdom.

Their collective role was really quite simple: to act as kamikazes.

Thanks to a combination of gravity acting upon their heavy bodies and their own flying, the flock built up hypersonic levels of speed as they aimed for the towering spires that made up the more affluent section of Atlas' business district, where many of the wealthy elite tended to gather for one reason or another.

Thanks to the snowstorm still raging on, they could tell that all were oblivious to their quickening approach.

By the time any of the humans noticed the darker than usual shadows all around them and bothered to look up, it was already too late.

Before they impacted and willfully extinguished their own lives for their Mind's goal, the Nevermore got to hear the screams of their victims.

And then all went silent in the moment following this.

It was only after this that chaos began to break out.

* * *

Vacuo, already an unforgiving and unruly place, wasn't spare at all. If anything, of the places currently being attacked right now, the kingdom probably got it the worst.

Due to lacking any actual walls or defenses to keep Grimm at bay, it'd always been up to the people themselves to know how to defend themselves or to get away in a swift fashion if defense proved impossible. As it is, it was really only Shade Academy and the primary school, Lux academy, that functioned as the 'police' of this land. And with a good number of students from Shade having gone to Beacon for the Vytal Festival, this meant that the kingdom was left with far less defenders than was safe.

And this showed right away.

Caravans that had been going about their own business were immediately ambushed by Earth Dwellers – huge snake-like Grimm that liked to burrow their way underground – from underneath with said Grimm bursting out of the sand and swallowing people whole with just one gulp of their mouths.

The Beowulves of this region, possessing smaller yet faster bodies compared to Vale's, blitzed their way towards various small settlements and began their rampages with reckless abandon.

Screams of all ages echoed for miles, but with most settlements so far apart from one another, no one heard their cries and pleas for help and so no help ever came to these people in their last and terribly short moments.

But in short order, all the Grimm in the region made a quick beeline for Shade Academy. Although most of the students were away, that didn't mean the academy was completely defenseless nor did it mean that the remaining students and teachers would be sitting around letting the settlements burn.

However, whatever preparations Shade has made would be subpar compared to all the other academies given their numbers and location.

With this in mind thanks to their Mind, the Grimm began to make their way towards the academy at terrifying speeds.

It was the Earth Dwellers that reached the area where the academy was located in first, their speed underground being nearly unmatched by any other type of Grimm. Detecting a small patrol unit, they dug deeper into the earth, far deeper than any human has ever recorded them digging, all for the sake of avoiding whatever radars they may have.

It wasn't until they were more than several dozen yards directly underneath the patrol unit that two of the Earth Dwellers suddenly altered direction, shooting straight up with nary a sound.

Only when they pierced the ground with mouths open wide to swallow the patrol whole that they finally let out a screech loud enough to give all who heard it pause, just long enough to ensure that their targets were unable to properly react.

By the time the patrollers – two third year teams – had finally begun to draw their weapons and let loose startled cries, the Earth Dwellers had already gulped them down, the insides of their bodies containing powerful acids meant to immediately break down anything that had the misfortune of entering.

Even with aura, the team had scarcely lasted more than ten seconds of agonizing pain before the acid fully depleted them of their protection.

As the Earth Dwellers continued on their way, all but leading the assault, if one listened closely enough, there were soul-crushing screams echoing ever so slightly from within the two Grimm.

Screams that lasted only for half a minute at the most before a deathly silence took its place.

Although incapable of physically doing so, the Grimm almost seemed to smile.

The day of reckoning was finally here. Time to go all out.

* * *

Tenebrous sensed it all occurring, all the Grimm across Remnant mobilizing and acting at Salem's behest.

In a span of at most ten minutes, it could already detect the chaos growing, the negativity blooming and feeding the rage and vigor of all the Grimm. Although its senses were nowhere near great enough to actually see or hear all of this, it still bore a connection of sorts to the Grimm and it was this that allowed it to somewhat intercept Salem's orders to the creatures of darkness.

Sadly, its connection wasn't quite strong enough for the god to make any use of it – it and by extension everyone on Jaune's side would be flying blind into this.

Nonetheless, if nothing else, it could inform its Apostle of what had occurred.

 _The other kingdoms… Salem has already started her assault on them._

It felt its Apostle twitch as he kept on the move. Just moments ago, the White Fang had entered Vale's air space via a plethora of bullheads. Jaune, being one of the few among the forces assembled with the permission to act as he saw fit, was trying to head for wherever the bullheads were heading for.

But alas, while the blond could easily keep up with the bullheads' speed, there were far too many for him to decide which one he should prioritize not to mention they'd already started to deploy bombs and missiles that were already battering the city. And despite as many civilians having long since been evacuated to various shelters, not everyone made it way.

The screams that echoed throughout the air only confirmed this.

Tenebrous could sense Jaune's warring emotions and its words just now didn't appear to help the Apostle.

It could not blame him. After all, despite all the preparations they've made, against a foe who could command entire legions, being able to successfully hold the frontline in any of the kingdoms was impossible given the sheer numbers and variations of Grimm that existed.

"…Alright," Jaune muttered, more to himself than Tenebrous, or so the Power was assuming. "…What about those?"

Ah, those unnatural Grimm that had flown alongside the bullheads. Currently, some of them continued to fly alongside one bullhead in particular while the rest had landed in other parts of the city. Already, the sounds of destruction and violence had broken out, people from the secondary perimeter having apparently rushed forward to meet these new Grimm.

 _They appear to be fusions between other Grimm… Salem had been rather busy on her end, it would seem. It's vague, but I can sense them following the commands of another as well…. It's coming from that bullhead they're flanking._

The other bullheads now split apart, heading for other parts of the cities, continuing to drop bombs and causing people to start to move.

But now at its words, Jaune paused and looked to the one Tenebrous had just mentioned.

"Then let's try and take that bullhead down first. If someone on it is controlling these bastardized Grimm, then it's likely someone with a lot of pull among the White Fang. Taking him or her out along with those Grimm will hopefully cause the others to retreat." Jaune uttered this in as calm a voice as was possible. But there was no mistaking the way his hands balled into fists, the way his knuckles cracked. "Amber's already gone ahead to assist in slowing down the horde. It's up to the rest of us to take out the White Fang now before the Grimm can really start to pour into the city."

 _But even with your current level and the others, it may not be enough – those bullheads are quite mobile and already I can detect the Nevermores about to swoop in alongside the Gryphons. Once they establish control of the skies, everyone will have to take to the ground._

Tenebrous paused when it saw and felt Jaune remove it, dropping the god in its current form as his coat to the ground. "I know," spoke the young man. "That's why… the both of us are going to deal with them here and now."

… _Really?_

Jaune nodded firmly, his eyes still not leaving the bullhead surrounded by those fused Grimm. It had started to slow and begin its descent somewhere in the residential area of Vale. Time would now be crucial. "The Trial's finally here, Tenebrous. There's no longer a point to be concealing yourself when Armageddon is pretty much on everyone's doorstep."

 _What if our allies, who are unware of my existence, start attacking us? It could lead to further chaos if too many of them prioritize me over our actual enemies._

Despite saying that, however, Tenebrous had already started to shift from its coat form into the same physical form it'd taken when it had reluctantly fought Amber.

"Actions will always speak louder than words. Beating down the White Fang and saving people ought to change minds quickly enough," Jaune spoke, sporting what could possibly be described as an amused smirk.

" **Quite true,"** physically spoke Tenebrous, having finished its change. Its eight-foot ten form towered over Jaune, yet when it motioned towards the bullhead, it was with a surprising grace. **"Very well. Let us be off – time is of the essence."**

"You got that right," Jaune said.

Then in perfect synchronization, the two of them – god and Apostle – were off, ready to unleash their terrible fury upon these attackers.

Moving swiftly from one rooftop to the next, Tenebrous moved at a speed far greater than when it had smacked around Amber during the Breach. It noticed that beside it, Jaune was keeping pace with him with only moderate difficulty.

This pleased the god. A few weeks back, Jaune would've struggled to achieve this kind of speed, but it would seem that in the previous few days, his power had unconsciously grown a fair bit.

Underneath the skin and everything else that comprised the body, it could see the power Jaune contained, looking ready to burst forth at any moment should enough effort be expended.

…Looks like the time may very well be upon the young man for him to achieve his full power. Or start to achieve it anyways. But it'd be best to save that until they actually can confront Salem… and that must wait until the Trial has first been dealt with.

Humming to itself thoughtfully, the god put on yet another burst of speed, one that Jaune silently matched.

In the span of a split second thereafter, they reached the residential area.

And it looks like their targets had been busy in spite of such a short time frame. Already, houses had been collapsed, either via bombs, pure Dust, conventional guns, or even those fused Grimm they'd seen.

And speaking of those Grimm…

" **They sense us. As does the one controlling them,"** Tenebrous said.

As the Power, its very presence can bolster the Grimm's animalistic instincts noticeably better than even Salem as the Mind can, since all she can do is guide them whilst leaving their individual actions up to their own instincts. However, the level of control Salem had over all the Grimm along with whoever was in charge of these fused ones left little room for its presence to affect them much.

Instead, it seems like instead its very presence alongside Jaune's was merely serving as a beacon for them. And already, they can hear the squawks/howls of the Grimm as they took to the air once more…

Alongside the bullhead they'd arrived by.

"Damn it…! They must have only stopped for a minute to drop some people off! It's heading for Beacon's direction now!" Jaune said.

Tenebrous agreed with its Apostle's assessment, its own ability to see aura allowing it to see more than a dozen White Fang members spreading out all across the area, weapons hot and firing as they shot up and burned down various houses.

Mercifully, most of this area was already abandoned. But not all of it. Given several minutes or so, they'll start getting to the houses where the residents hadn't been able to evacuate for one reason or another.

" **Go. Deal with the bullhead. I shall see to the fused Grimm here alongside the White Fang. And if possible, I will take the remaining civilians to safer spots afterwards."**

It took a few bold steps forward, its red eyes looking briefly to Jaune.

Its Apostle wasted no time replying. "Got it. Best of luck; we're all going to need it!"

Tenebrous merely nodded and an instant later, its Apostle left.

As for the god itself, it remained standing for a brief moment, listening. The White Fang spreading throughout this area continued to destroy and ransack as they went along. Some residents, still not quite in danger just yet, could be heard filling the air with their screams of terror.

The other bullheads had split off and had no doubt touched down by now to cause chaos in various other parts of Vale – the downtown area, the industrial zone, the more business-centric region and so on.

Up overhead, small planes bearing the symbol of Atlas flew, the military finally finding their wits again to mobilize against the terrorists.

If it was already a frenzy now, then once the retaliation truly began, negativity would spike. That will most likely be when the Grimm horde will finally stop dawdling and attack in full.

There's no way this is mere coincidence. It felt far too convenient. So that could only mean one thing:

Somehow, Salem had managed to rope in the White Fang as her pawns, meant to further sow and reap the seeds of discord.

Tenebrous let out a sound that could best be described as one of disgruntlement. So much time it and Jaune had spent simply trying to prepare for the Trial that they had neglected to think of a solution to the White Fang. In hindsight, they really should have done so considering the small yet still noteworthy role they had taken during the Breach.

Will humanity end up paying for this mistake? Tenebrous didn't know… but it wasn't about to stand by and allow it.

Girding itself, Tenebrous leapt from its current spot and towards the area where most of the terrorists were still relatively gathered.

Time to show them the folly of their actions.

* * *

James Ironwood, in a display of his self-control, managed to avoid ripping out his hair and throwing things around.

When the bullheads of the White Fang had been spotted, he and his staff here had scrambled almost frantically, having tried to figure out how best to deal with them without giving up any of the defenses he'd prepared for the Grimm horde.

It had taken a few minutes, but through a few quick personal calls to some of the squads he had in the surrounding area, he'd been able to change up some positions for his soldiers without making too big of a hole in the perimeters that had been established.

Now the soldiers he'd pulled from the perimeter were on route to deal with the White Fang members that were already spread throughout Vale right now.

Still, this didn't exactly please him.

"Damn it all… we should've seen this coming!" He pounded the metal bar before him with his right hand, denting it slightly as he'd still made it a point to hold back. "As it is, we can't use any of the weaponry here to shoot down those bullheads!"

While his personal airship had more than enough firepower to deal with the bullheads that were closest to the forest – one in particular seemed to be heading here – shooting them down would also mean essentially razing some parts of Vale to the ground as a result of the power of the weaponry his ship possessed.

Now while collateral damage is honestly something that would likely be unavoidable here, some of those bullheads had landed in areas where shelters and bunkers were generally located at. Firebombing those locations would not only wipe out the terrorists, but also those structures and the civilians inside as well.

Obviously, that would be unacceptable. As such, his airship was all but useless right now, especially since it lacked the range needed to start blasting the horde from here, not without leaving Beacon and getting much closer.

As for the one bullhead that had been heading this way…

"Any fix on its location?" he asked.

"No sir! It had descended somewhere in the outskirts of the forest and it looks like it had been shut down – there are no more heat signatures coming from the engine and the forestry is making it impossible to pick up anyone that had been aboard it.

James began to bristle at that.

However, a hand suddenly fell upon his shoulder and he turned to see that it was Ozpin. "Calm yourself James. I know this is worrisome, but now of all times isn't a good time to allow our emotions to seep through."

Of course, Ozpin was right. But how could he not be worked up with everything going on already? Reports were already coming in from virtually everyone they had stationed in the other kingdoms and already it seemed that their preparations hadn't been enough – Salem had managed to easily take the initiative.

Ozpin then stepped forward and picked up a communication device, an earpiece. "This is Ozpin," he began, speaking to whoever was on the other end. "We have the White Fang approaching the academy right now. Their last known location was to the northwest, about several kilometers away. If possible, do send a few to check it out."

There was a momentary pause. James noted the way Ozpin's grip on his cane clenched a bit more tightly than before. "I know… just send out a few teams. But make sure they have whatever equipment needed to see this through."

After that, Ozpin switched off the device and set it down. He didn't sigh or anything, but James could see the desire to do so building up ever so slightly within him.

And James knew exactly why.

"Oz… the perimeter around the academy is mainly made up of first years. There may be a few teachers here still, but they're not quite the most skilled your academy has to offer, plus they need to be present to lead…" he began a little softly.

Ozpin's expression became unreadable. He merely looked back at James and uttered two words filled with emotions that the general simply couldn't identify.

"I know."

* * *

Of all the things team RWBY had been expecting to occur, being told to head out into the forest and intercept a crew of unknown size from the White Fang wasn't quite high on this list. It was a little understandable considering the Grimm horde right outside of Vale's walls, ready to smash right through it at the first opportunity.

Needless to say, the team was feeling a little worried. The only good thing is that they weren't going into this by themselves; team JNPR was also coming with them.

Wandering into the forest, the two teams had taken up something of a circular formation, looking almost like the numbers on a clock, just without the numbers.

At the forefront, they had their respective heavy hitters, Yang and Nora. Flanking them were Blake and Ren, both of whom could function as either close range or mid-range combatants. Then walking behind these two were Weiss and Pyrrha, who would be functioning in a more supportive role, providing cover fire, but primarily using their semblances – glyphs and polarity respectively – to bolster their friends' combat ability and slow down their potential foes.

As for the team leaders, Ruby and Jeanne, they would be serving as the rear guard – Ruby would provide fire support for virtually everyone else and fight with Crescent Rose in close combat if anyone got past her friends (and sister) whereas Jeanne was to serve as the defense against anyone that somehow managed to get around the entire group and attack them from behind. Although the blonde was perhaps the least skilled of the whole lot, she'd improved significantly since the start of the term and her high aura capacity combined with her natural durability and shield made her suited for the role.

Walking through the forest as quickly as possible without risking the breaking of their formation, the group made their way towards the location in complete silence, a nervous energy about them.

It was somewhat broken when one of them finally spoke up.

"Whelp. Not exactly how I thought today was going to go," Yang, ever the talker, began. "I mean, seriously? You'd think with all the Grimm, the White Fang would consider maybe taking a day off or something."

"No… this sort of thing is exactly what I had expected of them," Blake then said a little quietly. "Still, expecting it a bit and actually having it happen feel so… different."

"Just how many of them do you think there are?" Nora asked, the usually bombastic and eager girl looking a little nervous for once. Understandable given the circumstances.

"Normally the White Fang work in groups about a dozen strong, maybe even almost twice that," Blake explained, her past as part of the White Fang having been known to her friends for quite some time now. "But that's only with the more unskilled guys. If these ones are skilled, however, it could be half that number easily… but these aren't ordinary circumstances."

"Just keep together like this, everyone," Ruby then said. "As long as well stick to Jeanne's formation, we should be able to handle them easily!"

She then looked to said girl, hope in her silver eyes.

Jeanne blushed just a bit. She'd been the one to suggest their current formation and they all had eagerly accepted the idea with little hassle. She didn't know if it was simply because there'd been no other forthcoming idea or not, but knowing that it was her that had led to this felt oddly heartwarming to her. Motivating too, in a way; more than ever, she had to live up to the promise she'd made to her team earlier about coming out of this alive.

"Indeed." Pyrrha smiled. "So long as we're able to carry out our respective roles, we should be able to at least push back anyone who comes at us, barring unforeseen events."

"Don't go jinxing us or anything," Weiss muttered, looking the most nervous and worked up out of the whole bunch. As a Schnee, it was a well-known fact that there was a lot of bad blood between her and the terrorist group. She may have long since reconciled with Blake, but the rest of the White Fang was very much a different story.

"Heh, as if that would h-," Yang began to say.

"Wait," Ren suddenly said, pointing his weapons somewhere to his left. "I think I just saw something."

Immediately, the idle chatter ended and the entire group stopped where they were at, taking up defensive stances.

A breeze passed through the area, causing the trees all around them to gently rustle along with the grass beneath their feet.

Underneath her bow, Blake's cat ears twitched. Her eyes narrowed; she was picking up something too. Wielding both of her swords, she switched one of them into its gun form. "I'm hearing something too…"

There was a rustling sound somewhere off behind them all and now it was loud enough for everyone else to hear as well.

Ruby and Jeanne being the closest to the source, the two leaders were particularly on guard. The former held Crescent Rose in its smaller form, holding it steady and ready to fire at a second's notice. Jeanne held her shield out, ready to push back against anything that came charging at her. The latter made sure to step forth a bit in order to defend Ruby if it turned out to be necessary.

Another sound, not quite a rustle but rather something else that couldn't be identified, occurred. It resounded from somewhere to the front of the group, where Yang and Nora were at.

"Sounds like…" Yang began, her face scrunching up. "flapping wings?"

"Dunno," Nora said, hefting Magnhild.

By this point, the entire group was facing outwards, weapons and Dust at the ready.

So focused were they on looking outwards that they neglected to check _above_ them. By the time any one of them noticed the growing shadow directly above them, it was already too late.

And faster than any of them could react, something with massive wings landed in the middle of their formation, letting loose a howl unlike anything they'd heard before lashing out.

In the span of a split second, their formation had been broken as they were all knocked back. And out from the forest around them, other shadows began to emerge far too quickly for any of them to make out the features off save for one thing:

Wings. Just as massive and pitch black as the ones the initial creature.

At that instant before veritable anarchy took place, exactly one thought ran through all their minds in unison.

"Grimm!"

And then the Grimm were upon them.

* * *

From within the shadows the thick forestry provided, Adam and his men watched on quietly as the fused Grimm Salem had given him went to work.

It was enough to make him sneer vindictively.

To think that these fused Grimm would possess the combined physical capabilities of their original counterparts… impressive. Terrifying as well, given the implications, but impressive nonetheless. The three Grimm that he'd taken along with him for this attack on Beacon were already proving their worth with how effortlessly they'd circled the group before splitting them apart in an instant.

And seeing that this group of students – really? Did the humans think mere students would be enough to deal with him? – had his former comrade Blake and that damned blond girl among them, he could feel his sneer grow.

Really now. Talk about luck. Here and now, he could deal with them both for their crimes against him and the White Fang along with their… friends. God, saying that word made him want to spit for some reason.

But once they're dealt with, he'll cut off their heads and take them back to Beacon to show to the rest of those damnable humans and Faunus traitors before cutting them all down.

"Advance!" he commanded of his group. "Kill them and bring their heads along with us!"

"Uh, but sir," spoke one of his group, a woman around his age with koala ears. "Can't the Grimm do that while we move on?"

"They could, but we will be the ones to do them in. As useful as these Grimm are, today's victory must be brought about by our own hands. That includes the deaths of anyone in our way," Adam said.

An excuse. That was all this was.

Logically speaking, he really should just let the Grimm do the work for them and command them to head to Beacon afterwards to assist him… but with Blake and that blonde here, ignoring them and moving on wasn't in the cards anymore. Not until he got some sweet revenge.

He gripped his blade as he began to trek towards the group that was now desperately trying to fight back against the relentless Grimm. Adam had to hold back a laugh as one of the Grimm grabbed a hold of the sole boy amongst the group and flew him through several trees. Off to the side, another Grimm was stomping furiously on that Schnee bitch while simultaneously pinning Blake to a thick tree with one of its hands.

Truly, this was far too good a chance to pass up.

He began to draw his blade, eager for blood.

His revenge begins _now_.

* * *

 **And so the chapter ends here! So about 20 or so pages in length – not bad for the Trial's start! The next few chapters will be just as long if not longer, so I hope you'll be willing to put up with the extra length.**

 **Personally, I had wanted to make this chapter even longer, but feared having it drag on. After all, the main point of this chapter was simply to establish the beginning of the Trial and subsequently show off the opening moves of the antagonists.**

 **Up next, our protagonists will begin their own counteract and from there, the fighting will truly begin! Look forward to it!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	43. Chapter 43

And I'm back! Once again, the most recent chapter I wrote for my original novel proved to be a little longer than I'd originally thought. Tougher to write too, due to some writer's block on my part. Oh boy, sure hope I'm able to pick up the pace for it soon – don't want to take too long writing it, after all!

Anyone watch DB Super as of recently? Because damn! Now that's the sort of fast-paced action I remember from childhood. Can't wait to see what else the show has in store for us watchers!

And on the note of anime, the Dies Irae anime has started! Or rather, it did about two weeks back – already on its official third episode or so. While changes had been made to certain things in addition to pacing, I'm just happy at all to be able to watch it. To those of you watching the series as well, I hope you enjoy it!

But moving on a little bit here – with this chapter, the Trial will now be in full swing, which is to say that humanity will naturally be fighting back in full. Getting their collective shit together, if you want to be blunt, heh. That said, it's definitely going to be an uphill battle that I'm sure you all will enjoy.

Now then, onwards!

Chapter 43

Seated within her castle, Salem leaned back with her eyes closed, yet still remaining very much aware of all that was going on, her connection to the entirety of the Grimm serving as her new 'vision' for the time being.

After all, she wanted an up close and personal seat to the devastation currently being wrought by her true friends.

She smiled viciously as the Grimm in Mistral began their siege upon Haven, with Nuckaleeves now joining the frontline and utilizing their lower horse halves to ram openings through the various fortifications that had been made.

She giggled not unlike a schoolgirl when the Beowulves had finally managed to climb their way up and over the walls surrounding the Atlas kingdom, the soldiers stationed along the walls' top having spotted them far too late due to the snowstorm. Their startled cries, suddenly being silenced seconds later, filled her with glee.

Her giggling nearly became mad cackling when the usually chaotic kingdom of Vacuo became even more so, the lack of any real defenses proving to be their downfall as Earth Dwellers tore through settlements at breakneck speeds, their size and ferocity making it impossible for anyone to mount any real counterattack. Legions of other Grimm had begun to form in their wake and she directed them towards Shade, with a few Earth Dwellers having already reached said academy.

Jubilation filled her as the first blow against humanity continued in earnest.

But it was not yet complete – there was still one kingdom left, after all.

"Vale…" she spat the word out as if it were poison.

It'd once been her birthplace, her home… but following her vicious beating and burning at the stake, it had long since ceased having any real meaning to her beyond now being a place she desired to see purged. As slowly and as cruelly as possible.

And that was now what she intended to do.

She knew very well that Ozpin and his weak and simple-minded allies were there within Vale's main city, named after the kingdom itself as a show of arrogance. By now, he would've received words from others about what was going on within the other kingdoms. She knew it would rankle him, would throw him off and slowly begin to crush whatever hopes he had.

Time to deliver the first true blow to that traitorous bastard of a former friend. She'll make it as painful as possible, first on a psychological level. Then once his spirit has been thoroughly crushed, she'll kill him for good.

" _Begin,"_ she said to the Grimm just outside of Vale's walls, her voice gaining an unnatural tone to it as she utilized the connection she as the Mind had with them.

She felt them lurch for a moment and then respond to her command with a flurry of activity. Through her closed eyes, she could see them charge forward in unison, intending on crushing right through the wall and its defenders like a tidal wave of darkness.

In response, she could see the soldiers and huntsmen stationed outside the wall open fire on her Grimm. She felt a number of them die as lucky shots blasted through their skulls, Beowulves and even some Ursas falling to the actions of these pitiful humans.

She felt a pang of sadness for her fallen ones, her only true friends and this sadness quickly turned to anger, fueling her ever burning hatred all the more.

" _Crush them!"_ she roared and the Grimm all roared along with her. _"Nevermores, takes flight!"_ And the Nevermores that had been patiently circling above the horde assembled now moved at her demand, flying high over the walls, well out of range for any weapons the humans possessed.

Through their sharp eyes, she could see flames already burning in some parts of the city, bullheads that clearly didn't belong to Ozpin's damned academy or to the Atlas military flying about strategically.

The sight made her chuckle a bit. As she'd been expecting, Adam Taurus had begun his attack, an action that had taken humanity by surprise just enough for her Grimm to have taken the initiative so strongly in the first place.

Good. At least he was proving to be useful right now, unlike Cinder had. Once he starts to become useless, however, well… she's made sure to implant some insurance within him during their deal making. It'll make him serve her a bit longer until he's put down.

For now, though…

" _Locate the shelters – they're to the south and west of the city. Break in and start killing the people inside."_ Her smile could no longer be described as that of a human. _"Start with the infants and child first… then target the elderly and invalids – it'll cripple the others' morale and hopes."_

She spoke such commands with nary an ounce of hesitation or regret. If anything, telling the Grimm to do such things made her heart skip a beat in anticipation.

She'd been accused of being a witch all that time ago, a monster in human form. Time to finally start proving just how much of a monster she really was.

"And it's all your fault, Ozpin. Everything that happens today will be on your head," she muttered.

But in that very moment-.

"Hm?!"

-Something occurred.

Not within her castle or the surrounding area, but rather there in Vale, just outside its walls.

To her confusion and shock, the Grimm at the very front of the charging horde had been blown back, as if by some incredible force.

"What?" It was all she could utter upon seeing this through the Grimm's eyes, the deaths of the ones out in front having been so quick that she'd been unable to get a glimpse of what had occurred.

For a brief second, she entertained the notion that it had been the work of Tenebrous or even the Power's Apostle. But then she dismissed this thought, knowing that they'd likely be within the city of Vale itself, dealing with the White Fang first.

It could've been Ozpin, but Salem will reluctantly admit he's changed a bit over these past decades; rather than hot-headedly dive into battle, he was now the type to oversee and command the situation from a distance until his hand was completely forced.

So then who'd just-?!

* * *

Outside the walls of Vale stood the perimeter that had been established by Ozpin and general James Ironwood. Consisting mainly of soldiers from Atlas along with a good handful of huntsmen rounded up from just about anywhere that the two commanders could find, it'd be quite easy to say that many, if not all of the people here were unfamiliar with one another for the most part.

As such, it was all they could do to keep themselves from stopping their collective attack against the incoming horde of Grimm from sheer shock.

There, standing at the very front of their perimeter were three individuals, whom only the huntsmen gathered even really knew, and even then only in passing.

"As unrelenting as always, Peter," the sole woman among the three muttered, Glynda Goodwitch looking marginally bemused despite the situation they all were in.

Standing just before her was an absolute mammoth of a man. Not even a moment ago, he'd been of average height for a man of his age and build, but now he was younger and in turn far more muscular and even taller to boot.

He was Peter Port, with his semblance fully activated and restoring him to his prime. "Ha! How can I possibly hold myself back now of all times, Glynda?" he replied in a jovial tone that made for a stark contrast with his serious expression. He eyed the currently frozen horde of Grimm without fear.

Dare they even say it, but the soldiers and huntsmen watching thought he even looked _down_ on the Grimm, as if they were barely prey.

To the right of Peter stood another man, his dark green hair looking even more frazzled than when he first arrived here somehow.

He seemed to chuckle a bit at Peter's words. "Well, I suppose this is the most ideal time for you to be cutting loose," spoke the man, Bartholomew Oobleck. He then frowned as he adjusted his glasses with his free hand, the other carrying his weapon. "Though to think that we'd be faced with this crisis before us… history truly does seem to repeat." The sadness in his tone was audible for all to hear.

Peter slapped him hardily on the back, an action that amazed everyone by sheer virtue of the fact that Bart managed to not go flying from the sheer strength of it.

In fact, Bart barely even stumbled!

"Then it's high time we aim to change history for good! From what you've told of me, the Grimm would crush settlements in massive waves and with surprising levels of coordination over the several decades… a horrible event that now seems to be happening to us on a far larger scale." Peter took another step forward.

This simple action, being more of a stomp rather than a step, finally seemed to spurn even the stunned Grimm horde back into action.

Peter merely pointed Blunderbuss at the incoming horde without a trace of fear. Indeed, his eyes shined brightly with battle lust and anger instead. "If there's ever been a worthier time of all our strength and skill and courage, then I can't imagine such a time being none other than now! Comrades! It's been so long since we've last cut loose – and with all due respect, I believe this had taken its toll on both of you in terms of skill. But now! Now we have on our hands a chance to do away with our rustiness once and for all! And by the end of today, it'll be the Grimm who will fear humanity, not the other way around!"

To the surprise of a stunned silent group, it was Glynda that answered to Peter's speech first. "For once, I couldn't agree more with you," she said as she began to stride forth boldly.

As she did so, one hand went up to her hair and undid the proper bun she always kept it in. As her light blonde hair now fell loose, surprisingly reaching a bit past her shoulders in the process, she then removed her glasses, which had always been a prescription pair – useless in other words.

This got Oobleck to chuckle. "To think you'd now be getting serious… circumstances aside, I still can't help but be surprised."

"Get used to it," Glynda remarked. "Here they come."

Grimm roared. Those on the ground charged forth whilst those in the air – Nevermores and Gryphons – continued their flight. Some of the flying Grimm didn't even make their flight over the perimeter when they suddenly screeched in pain and began to fall to the ground.

Soldiers and huntsmen alike moved aside as much as possible without breaking formation and watched in a bit of a stupor as the Grimm hit the ground and began to dissipate.

Dead, just like that.

It was only after this that some noticed wisps of purple aura literally radiating off Glynda's raised left hand.

"Bart, Peter, go forth and combat the Grimm. From here, I'll provide support along with everyone else and clean up whatever small fry get past you," Glynda said.

"Ha! But of course," Peter said as he began to dash forward at a speed that didn't suit his large frame at all.

The small bunch of Grimm at the very front of the horde that he was aiming for seemed to falter a bit in shock, perhaps even fear.

This fear spurned him onwards and he gave a little leap and a thundering battle cry as he was immediately upon them, swinging Blunderbuss down with colossal force.

The very ground beneath them all shook violently from the impact and the Grimm that had the misfortune of being within even a few yards of the impact were immediately slain as a mere _side effect_. Such was the might of Peter's current self, one of the mightiest huntsmen alive.

In response, everyone there bore witness to the intelligence of the horde.

Despite their vastly superior numbers, instead of trying to surge onwards and overwhelm Peter through their combined mass, the horde began to spread apart, almost parting like a black sea. Even with his speed, there's simply no way Peter would be able to cover each separating faction of the Grimm horde.

That was when Oobleck finally took command. "Fire! Fire at will!" the normally loud History professor bellowed in a voice louder than normal.

This finally got everyone else to resume their duties. Soldiers held up their weapons and began opening fire into just about every direction possible, with at least half of them aiming upwards at the Nevermores and Gryphons still flying into Vale from high above.

The huntsmen they'd recruited now dashed forward, using the covering fire the Atlas soldiers provided to take a more personal approach to this matter. Weapons shifted into swords and lances and axes and more, all meant to tear through the Grimm at close range. The huntsmen and huntresses spread out and attempted to tackle the splitting factions of Grimm, cutting and piercing and sometimes just punching their way through the onslaught of Beowulves and Ursas, the Grimm having immediately assessed the threat they posed and lashing out in retaliation nigh-instantly.

Grimm howled and died in droves. Aura snapped and crackled and visible flared up when particularly strong hits connected with the huntsmen. Although just a handful of Grimm posed little threat to any one huntsmen, having this many literally swarming forth made dodging all attacks far more difficult, especially when the line must be held.

Nonetheless, they pressed onwards, even when some people fell, trampled unconscious or worse.

But it's not as if the one who'd rallied them into action was doing nothing.

With no reason to hold back, Bartholomew Oobleck zipped around with speed even greater than Peter's current self, little more than a minor blur to anyone that tried to pay attention, including the Grimm.

With his weapon in its combat form, he swung and maneuvered it around with a mastery that left the few visible glimpses of his attacks awe-inspiring to those that managed to see it.

Every time he thrust his lance-like weapon forth, at least two Grimm would fall, the weapon stabbing very much all the way through the first one and striking another.

Every time he swung it, it would behead an Ursa, the professor's lanky frame not doing his surprising strength justice, though sheer momentum did help quite a bit in dealing out such blows with a blunt weapon.

And every now and then, he'd switch it up – he'd activate his flame thrower function to immediately set larger Ursas and Gryphons that had landed on the ground on fire.

Unlike a majority of the other huntsmen there, his speed was so great that he was perhaps the only one who could consistently dodge every vicious bite, tail swipe, and slashing claw that tried to strike him. What's more, he had the time to observe all this and actually think on the matter.

"They're actively aiming for vital spots! Defend accordingly!" he then yelled as loudly as his voice allowed in this dire situation. As if to further prove his point, he stepped back to avoid having an Alpha Beowulf stab him in the appendix while simultaneously kicking a smaller Beowulf away that had tried to bite into his kidneys from behind.

After defending himself, Bart then took another step back, but only so that he could all but throw himself forward into the horde. Doing so, he leapt a few feet off the ground and proceeded to use the heads of nearly a dozen Ursas as stepping stones, making sure to stomp on them as hard as he could to disorient them.

But finishing them off, he decided, would have to wait for just a brief moment.

For he looked into the horde's massive ranks and saw the next wave of Grimm surge forward, almost trampling the smaller ones underneath.

"Deathstalkers!" he cried. "And Goliaths as well!"

While his cry served as yet another warning for all that could hear him, there were two people in particular he hoped to have heard him.

And sure enough, they didn't disappoint.

Peter swatted aside all Grimm in his way as he ran forward. The man even scoffed in disappointment as he literally stomped Beowulves and Ursas underfoot, as if they were insects. But when he charged to Bart's general location within the horde, he laughed in anger and glee as he spotted one Goliath stomping forward at a surprising speed.

Not one word was uttered between the two men as Peter passed Bart up, the former shrugging off the various attacks other Grimm threw his way as he ran towards the Golaith, which roared at Peter's nearing presence.

The very last thing Bart saw before the Grimm horde surged forth once more and swallowed up Peter and the Goliath was the big man rearing back his left fist for a mighty punch.

And that was when Glynda made her own presence known and all without leaving her spot near the perimeter and the wall.

A Deathstalker that had been nearing Bart hissed, stinger reared back and ready to impale him just as he spun through the air and decapitated a massive Gryphon that had somehow landed in an open spot on the ground.

He paid it no mind as the stinger of the Deathstalker began to lash out, for just a foot away from connecting with his back, a purple aura surrounded it, stopping the attack dead cold.

Glynda's semblance was at work now and with but a simple gesture on the woman's part, the entire tail of the scorpion-based Grimm twisted and contorted, eliciting a shrill hiss of pain from it that was promptly silenced when she used her semblance to rip off the stinger and pierce through its head with terrifying ease.

She was far from done, however, for she now shifted her focus to the next Deathstalker that took its fallen brethren's place. Before it even had a chance to do anything, she reached out with her semblance to grab hold of its inner self.

Although studying Grimm was something that had proven most difficult due to capturing any alive and keeping them that way for any period of time, it has been discovered that some of the more mature Grimm do bear things akin to internal organs and the like. With everything she's learned from Tenebrous and Jaune, Glynda now believed this was due to the Grimm's origins and how they strongly mimicked animals for the most part. But she could be wrong, for all she knew.

In any case, it was a moot point. All that mattered was that she was now using her semblance to grab hold of the second Deathstalker's 'brain.' She gave it a vicious shake that caused it to bash itself into mulch against the insides of its tough skull.

The second Deathstalker collapsed on the spot and dissipated unceremoniously immediately after its death.

That was when some Grimm began to get through, dashing past struggling huntsmen and towards her.

Some of the Atlas soldiers ceased firing, having run out of ammo for the moment, and drew large serrated knifes and daggers, more than ready to continue the fight up close if needed.

But she briefly waved them off, confident in her ability.

She took a bold step forward, placing her directly in the path of an Alpha Beowulf. It pounced and opened its mouth wide, ready to tear her head off. It did not see how Glynda swiftly raised her crop nor how purple aura surrounded it from the hilt up.

Glynda swung it casually yet with a near blinding speed and upon making even the slightest contact with the Alpha Beowulf, it was immediately split in two vertically. Its two halves dissipated before they even hit the ground and by then, Glynda had already gracefully stepped up to the next few Grimm that were coming for her and with one simple spin, she moved past all of them and they fell apart and died.

Only then did the purple aura surrounding her crop begin to take on an almost more solid form, making the crop now look more akin to a saber that vibrated ever so slightly if one looked closely enough.

Were it not for her display just now, any one of the soldiers looking upon this would've assumed it to not be enough to get the job done, but it was no make-shift saber – through the use of her semblance, Glynda was able to manifest her own aura around her crop and cause the aura to vibrate in such a way as to transform it into a high frequency blade, making it all the easier to slice through just about anything.

Fighting with such a 'weapon' was something she'd loved to do back when she was younger and a bit more… wild. However, over the years, she'd learned to temper herself into someone much sterner and in doing so had caused her to change how she fought accordingly, preferring to let her semblance do the work through more straightforward means. She'd even gone as far to change her appearance a tad bit as a sign of this, having started to tie her hair up in a bun and put on glasses.

But now with the entirety of humanity at stake, she'd known from the start that fighting as she'd learned to do would only slow her and by extension others down. And having recalled in silence the words Jaune had once spoken to her about holding back, she'd decided now was exactly the time to cut loose.

For lack of a better way to put it, it was time to indulge herself like she used to.

She let out a humph, but there was a small smile on her face as she raised her 'saber' and eyed it. Despite the situation, she's honestly glad to be able to act like this again. Being the 'stern deputy headmistress' had honestly been tiring more often than not. Probably why a lot of students often thought of her as looking grumpy and whatnot.

Ha, if only they could see her now.

But that aside…

"Raise your weapons!" she commanded the soldiers that had brought out their knifes. "Here come more!"

As more and more Grimm began to get past the huntsmen on the frontline, Glynda raised her makeshift weapon with the Atlas soldiers at her back.

It was time for the battle to truly begin.

* * *

In Atlas, Winter Schnee was quick to take charge of the situation from her personal airship, which now flew through the snowy sky of the kingdom.

Despite their preparations, massive Nevermores had been able to send the city into a panic by acting as kamikazes of all things. It was one thing to be told by the general just how smart the Grimm would somehow be during this period of time, but seeing it in action was honestly terrifying to behold.

But now was no time for panic, especially not when she was getting frantic reports of Grimm scaling the walls and even burrowing underneath them.

"Continue evacuating all civilians and non-essential personnel to the bunkers! Deploy the AK knights to the bottom of the walls!" she commanded.

With all the technology and weaponry at her disposal, it was high time to make damn good use of them. No point in sending brave men and women to their death when they had other means of holding the line for now.

With how many AK knights were available, it'd be best to have them fire away at the Grimm that were digging those holes. Speaking of which, the holes themselves were honestly quite small right now, but if given a few more minutes, they'll be big enough for a plethora of Beowulves and Ursas to start crawling through. For now, by having the knights shoot every single Grimm that was digging, they could at least delay these holes from being fully formed.

As for the other problems…

"Deploy all bullheads! Have the pilots focus on shooting down as many Nevermores as possible! Gryphons too!" she said through another open channel she had on the radio.

It was mainly the Nevermores and now the incoming Gryphons that posed the most problem, the flying Grimm serving as a continuous barrage of kamikazes. Already, they'd laid waste to more than a dozen skyscrapers, the resulting destruction raining down on the much smaller buildings and claiming God knows how many lives. If they could at least put a temporary stop to airstrike, then they could hopefully evacuate the rest of the people in this part of the city.

As for the Grimm climbing over the walls… sadly, the men stationed there had already been slain – their blood staining the walls a little too much for even her stomach to completely withstand – but that didn't mean the walls were lost.

"Have you gotten our gunners online?" she asked of a nearby aid.

"Just did, ma'am!" spoke the aid, a nervous man just a year or so younger than her. He stopped what he was doing at his computer console to look her dead in the eyes. "Awaiting your orders!"

"Good. Switch them on and have them focus on the Grimm coming in from outside – no more can be allowed into the city!"

There were large artillery cannons, simply referred to as gunners, atop the walls, positioned just a bit of the over the edge in order to allow them more firing room. Special moving platforms allowed them to be moved from the outside of the wall to the inside in case anything got past them. For now, however, it'd be best to have them take down any and all Grimm approaching the wall.

The low visibility from the ongoing storm would be a little bit of a problem, but the gunners' various visual modes should be able to make up for it.

"Yes ma'am!" spoke the aid and he got to work doing what she said.

Another aid approached her. "What about the Grimm that already got into the city?"

"Paladins," Winter said simply. "Send out as many as we can afford right now along with a squad to accompany each one. Have them spread throughout this entire region of the city and hunt down the Grimm!"

The aid gave a silent and quick salute before hastily going to relay the order.

Just then, the ship rocked a fair bit; a Nevermore had nearly rammed into it, but missed thanks to some cannon fire that the ship could output.

Regaining her nearly lost balance quickly, Winter gripped the bars before her tightly, twisting the metal ever so slightly as she struggled to rein in her raging emotions.

Up on various viewscreens, she could see the Grimm at work, the ones in the cities running further into the city, chasing after the last of the civilians and soldiers that were making a run for it. The ones digging the holes under the walls were being shot down by the AK knights, but were still persisting in the venture… and gaining just a bit of ground in the process.

The Grimm scaling the walls were now being shot down with ruthless efficiency by the gunners, but more and more kept on appearing to take their brethren's place with each passing second. Unless more reinforcement were sent soon enough, the number of Grimm would eventually be too much for the gunners to hold at bay… and she wasn't liking the way some of the Grimm had begun to eye the gunners. It was as if they knew exactly what the gunners were.

As for the Nevermores and Gryphons, a chaotic air battle was now being waged between them and the bullheads, missiles and gunfire lighting up the otherwise snowy white sky. The airborne Grimm screeched and cawed and rammed and tore their way through any bullheads that ended up getting too close. Some of these bullheads would pull off a surprisingly deft maneuver, avoiding damage with an almost graceful ease whilst others weren't so lucky, with the larger Nevermores impaling them through the front or sides, both falling together to the ground below.

Her airship wasn't spared either, with every single cannon on this ship currently in use as a veritable flock of Gryphons circled around it, drawing ever closer even as their numbers slowly dwindled with each shot.

Soon enough they'd be actually attacking, but for now it seemed as if the flock was content in trying to blind them – and it was working, what with some of the monitors now showing only the swirling Gryphons.

"Damn it all…" Winter muttered. Having sight of everything going on was critical. After all, info from the ground troops could only do so much. For the Grimm to seemingly realize this and respond accordingly… it was honestly quite terrifying.

But she was not someone to be cowed so easily by this.

While she wished strongly to be on the frontlines right now, she'd been entrusted by the general to take his place here in Atlas for the time being while he assisted Vale. She would not shirk this duty, especially not with how the situation currently is.

However, with all the Gryphons around them, she and her crew here would be next to useless if something else wasn't done soon; the cannons were only getting rid of so many of them at once. Something else was needed now.

And she had an idea. Not much of one, but it was better than nothing.

With only a brief word to some of the aids nearby, Winter grabbed hold of her weapon and headed for the open dock that the airship had.

Time to give these damned beasts a taste of their own medicine.

* * *

Within Mistral, various settlements had already been overrun – numerous bodies that could be barely called as such littered the now ruined towns and villages. The Grimm had spared no one and had marched onwards as a ruthlessly efficient fighting force.

However, the Grimm had actually received quite a surprise as they neared the location where Haven academy was at.

Which is to say, they began encountering genuine resistance. And not from huntsmen or huntresses either, but rather from townspeople.

"Keep at it!" cried out one such townsperson, a man in his fifties that still possessed a spry physique. The mayor perhaps or at least some sort of leader. Armed with a pitchfork, an unlucky Beowulf found its left eye gouged out by it, eliciting a howl of agony as the leader twisted the weapon viciously within its socket.

That was when another person, a young woman with bear ears, came charging forward and stabbed it in its throat with a long piece of wood, its ends sharpened to a dangerous point. She let out a shrill battle cry as she did so and both she and the older man took some measure of joy as the Beowulf fell back, dying.

And they weren't the only ones doing such things.

All the other townsfolk in the area were doing likewise.

The one thing about living in settlements well out in the forests and whatnot is that they have to learn when it was time to pack up and move. Or, if failing that, when it was time to fight. Grimm incursions weren't too unusual out in this part of the kingdom and they'd all be damned if the Grimm would force them to flee their homes, which have been around for plenty of years now.

The sheer number of Grimm may be far greater than anything they'd seen before and plenty of them had all but literally shat themselves as a result, but they weren't about to give up without some kind of fight.

Besides, the Grimm were coming at them from practically every direction, the forming horde spreading around the city like a flood. Escape was simply not an option.

So fighting was all they could do and they did it surprisingly well for civilians. They'd seen the horde incoming and had cut down trees and thrown down various objects that weren't otherwise pinned down to form barricades in each exposed path that led to their town and had gotten just about any stabbing or cutting implement to arm everyone. Anyone lacking such a weapon had taken lumber and with some help had cut it down to form simple spears.

The plan was dreadfully simple – stab whatever tries leaping over the barricade. They also had some guns that allowed their best shooters to take potshots from the rooftops into the crowd of Grimm.

But it wasn't going to last, however.

It was faint, especially with all the surrounding noise, but some of them could hear incoming Boarbatusks. Those Grimm would have no issue smashing through the barricades in a few hits. Combined with some Beowulves having leapt onto the nearest roofs and slaying some of the shooters, some Grimm were already finding ways into their homes.

This was the final stand, no doubt about it. But until the very end, they'd fight. This was their home and they weren't giving it up to anyone, let alone the Grimm.

With an almost synchronized battle cry, the remaining townspeople kept on fighting.

Meanwhile, the Grimm that had made their way closer to Haven were experiencing even greater resistance than the other Grimm.

While not much compared to the massive mountains of Atlas, Haven academy and the surrounding towns lied upon quite mountainous ground. This made for a literal uphill battle for the Grimm and the students of the academy were making it all the more difficult for the beasts to approach.

Many had their weapons in gun form and were unloading into the Grimm as they attempted to scale the sides of the mountains. Others had switched to melee and engaged the Grimm that had trapped themselves within the area's narrow and uneven paths.

The natural advantages afforded to them by the terrain allowed the students and actual trained huntsmen and huntresses to be far more effective than they would've been otherwise, but alas it could only do so much.

Quantity was a quality all its own, after all. And the Grimm put it to good use.

They flooded these narrow paths, Ursas and Boarbatusks squishing against each other into the paths with such unrelenting fervor that the surrounding walls began to crack and give way. With some students trapped in the middle of the path with both ends blocked by the Grimm, they could do little when the small cliffs overlooking them fell apart on top of them as the Grimm finally did enough damage to cause the collapse.

Beowulves and Beringels that have traveled far to arrive here began to scale the mountains leading up to Haven with much more ease now, the mountain slops not so straight up near the top. The Beringels in particular had a much easier time doing this, grabbing hold of thick vines and using them to pull themselves up.

The students at the top could barely inconvenience them, small arms fire doing little more than irritating the Beringels as the bullets bounced off their white bone-like armor or otherwise failed to barely pierce their naturally thick hides due to the sheer amount of muscle they possessed.

But where bullets failed, larger guns didn't. Some of the students possessed weapons that could transform into what could only be called cannons rather than guns and this proved a hell of a lot more effective. When enhanced with aura, the shots could seriously injure the Beringels and definitely kill the Beowulves. At the very least, in the case of the former, it could blow them off the mountain tops and back towards the ground.

Not only that, but seeing how the Grimm were crawling up, some of the much more agile students and huntsmen grabbed hold of the vines near the top and tied them around their waists before basically bungie-jumping down and slashing away at the Grimm before pulling themselves back up.

It proved startlingly effective, at least until the Grimm closest to Haven began to cut the vines after some of the students had jumped down, resulting in some of these unfortunate people to go plummeting to the ground below, having moved too far away from the mountainside to grab hold of it.

As of right now, humans and Grimm were in something of a deadlock – the Grimm could only scale so much before being slain or knocked down, but the humans in turn were stuck where they were, holding the line in order to keep the Grimm from reaching the top.

However, more Grimm slowly began to make their way up, having made their way past the stubborn townspeople below in the towns and now crowding their way up the mountain.

Many of the students and huntsmen up top couldn't help but gulp now, seeing what could only be described as a pitch-black mass now forming at the bottom of the mountains.

The real battle was only getting started, it would seem.

* * *

In Vacuo, chaos continued to spread as word about the Grimm now began to make its way around the entire kingdom through emergency broadcasts radios.

One particular settlement, large enough to be called city without the more advanced technology found in Vale or Atlas, had received such word just as the Grimm came knocking at their figurative door.

And it was enough to send the populace into a panic, the resulting negative emotion only fueling the incoming Grimms' rampage.

Already, the Grimm force, mainly consisting of Beowulves, Ursas, a small handful of Earth Dwellers and a few other factions of Grimm unique to Vacuo such as Sand Beetles (massively armored Grimm modeled after darkling beetles whose bone-white armor often were covered in sand) and Meat Catchers (truck sized Grimm modeled after funnel-web spiders that like to dig and hide in holes until prey nears it) made their way into the city.

The city was perhaps one of the most advanced settlements in Vacuo, having even been the first of few to start what was called the Land Restoration Project, a plan meant to restore the ruined land of Vacuo back to its former glory.

Progress on this plan had been slow, but the fruits of the citizens' labors had been paying off recently, with the general temperature of the land being offset by streams and jungle-like terrain in and around the city, sights that had once existed back when Vacuo still had an oasis, back before careless actions had drained such a natural resource and had shaped the land into the barren desert it was now known for.

The Grimm, acting on the knowledge their Mind had given them, fully intended to see this plan brought to ruin. It would crush whatever few hopes the humans here had and would make them far easier pickings than they were already.

But their intentions were beginning to come to a halt.

They were meeting resistance and it was actually _pushing them back_. Such a thing was enough to make the Grimm in the rear wonder what was going on, or at least confuse them generally; the Mind may be guiding them, but at the end of the day, they were still animalistic creatures running on instinct.

In any case, such resistance was so unexpected that the growing horde began to falter ever so slightly. Even the Earth Dwellers, Sand Beetles and Meat Catchers seemed to slow and make noises of befuddlement.

One of these particular Grimm, a Meat Catcher, dug slowly underground, moving ever closer to the source of the resistance. Even though it was several meters underground, it could still clearly hear its brethren up top being killed in droves.

Placing itself directly under the source of this chaos, it began to burrow upwards steadily until it was little more than several feet below the target, some human that seemed to be giving them all the most trouble.

Waiting momentarily for a lull, the Meat Catcher made its move.

The reason why it was called such a name is because they liked to burrow underground and weaken the ground just above them, making it so that when humans got too close, the ground would collapse and said humans would fall into their awaiting spidery arms and mouth. Although fairly slow in overall movement, these Grimm were more than capable of performing a lightning fast pounce if needed as well, with more than a few humans having been taken completely off guard by their sudden appearances from beneath.

The number of times anyone had ever been able to dodge such a pounce could probably be counted on a single hand.

So it was with this fact somehow flitting through its mind that the Meat Catcher found itself most shocked by what happened next.

Bursting forth from the ground, it practically had the target dead to rights and yet-.

-And yet the target simply vanished.

"Whoa there~ That was kind of close!"

These were the very last words the spider-based Grimm heard before it was cut into four pieces.

…

…

Said 'target' watched as the Grimm he just sliced up fell apart and dissipated. He then kicked at the ground, making sure the surface was just as hard as it normally was.

"A-Anymore of them?" spoke another individual nearby, one of the relative few civilians that had found the courage to take up arms against the incoming Grimm.

"Seems that way… just try to be aware of any softer spots in the ground – it means one of these things is lying in wait," spoke the first man, the one who'd single-handedly been slaying most of the Grimm to come forth. "Not to mention if you see the other Grimm back off like that, it means another one is circling around from behind… so make sure you stay back to back if possible."

This man alone was, for lack of a better way to put it, was the main fighting force this city had and his years of service meant he had a good deal of trust built up with the rest of the populace. So when he spoke those words, the other man and the rest of the armed civilians listening were quick to take it to heart and begin their charge forward again.

The Grimm horde had backed off or at least slowed ever so slightly when that Meat Catcher had come up just now, having made it dreadfully obvious something had been about to happen.

Seriously, the Grimm may be fighting much more intelligently than before in a lot of respects, but it seems they still had their faults.

Oh well, he wasn't going to complain.

The man took this momentary lull to stretch, standing up to his full height of 6 foot 7. Wearing a simple black tank top that clung to his very muscular upper body along with brown fatigue pants and black boots, he certainly made for an intimidating sight with how every muscle unconsciously flexed with even the slightest of movements.

Somewhat humorously, he bore a rather youthful face complete with a chipper smile, which seemed a bit at odds with both his fighting physique and his actual age, with him being in his early 40s. With blue eyes and somewhat messy black hair, he could probably be mistaken for one of those hunky characters in his daughter's mangas.

The man gave a bit of a chuckle as the Grimm now began to move once more, charging forward as a horde.

A Sand Beetle was leading said charge, this particular Grimm heading directly for him. Evidently, it pegged him as the greatest threat.

He felt somewhat honored. After all, he was no huntsman or anything like that, officially speaking. Though he certainly did come from such a background.

Wielding his weapon, a broadsword that was more akin to a massive slab of black iron rather than an actual sword, he walked ahead of the armed crowd. Motioning with his free hand for them to take up their positions once more, he continued his bold trek up to the incoming Sand Beetle.

Then just as it got within range.

"Hup!"

He moved too fast for most of the others to even see. Not even the Grimm could fully keep track of his movements.

But what they all did see was the result of his action – the man now walking _past_ the Sand Beetle with both hands now gripping his sword while the beetle-based Grimm split apart and died.

The crowd gaped and then cheered in complete amazement. And how could they not? Sand Beetles had exoskeletons completely comprised of the bone white substance almost all Grimm had, said exoskeleton so ridiculously thick and tough that attacks capable of killing _Beringels_ can't even _nick_ this exoskeleton.

So for one man to slice right through it with such ease was something worthy of such a reaction.

And seeing this was enough to make some of the Grimm actually balk, their instincts telling them that this wouldn't be as easy as they'd thought.

"Look at that, just look at that! They're scared!" cried out one person, a tough looking woman wielding an assault rifle.

"They oughta be!" said another person. "After all, we got the strongest man on our side. After all, he's a goddamned Arc!"

More people whooped and readied themselves once more for battle.

The black-haired man – Lucien Arc – couldn't help but chuckle a little sheepishly. "Aw, now you guys are just embarrassing me!" He scratched the side of his face in a manner not unlike his son, who was currently in Vale. With such an action combined with such a young face and powerful build, it was hard to believe he was roughly twenty years older than his appearance would suggest.

But alas that was the Arc lineage at work. While genetics could only account for so much, it was practically in the blood to have such robust bodies and large amounts of aura. Combined with training, it was pretty much inevitable for anyone of the Arc bloodline to be physical beasts in combat, though for the most part Lucien's daughters weren't all that much into training save for Jeanne and his fourth daughter Sophie, though the two still had ways to go before they could be truly called strong, no offense to them.

In any case, when his grandfather had upped and moved from Vale to Vacuo following the war, it'd been to Vale's loss and Vacuo's gain. Here, the Arcs had lived, as chipper and helpful as always.

"But on a more serious note…" Lucien now said, his expression notably more serious as he began to walk towards the Grimm again. He took note of the weaker ones backing away while the stronger ones moved forward. The Earth Dwellers even began to burrow underground and circle him.

It nearly made him laugh.

"I think it goes without saying that we ought to make these guys pay for trying to ruin all our hard work, right?" he said for all to hear. And as expected, his words drew plenty of exuberant agreements, his actions having restored the crowd's fighting spirit.

He and his wife were some of the more involved members among the crew working on the Land Restoration Project, with him usually doing most of the heavy lifting and assisting in some of the planning, though that and finances were mainly his loving wife's responsibilities, which she did very well he might add.

To have this Grimm horde suddenly stroll right in and attempt to crush everything the two of them and the rest of the inhabitants here have strived so hard for was an insult of the highest order. If his dear grandfather were still alive – he'd passed away at the ripe old age of _a hundred and four_ , Arcs were known for both long lives and vitality – then he was pretty sure the old man would've declared a blood feud on all Grimm for this.

Such a thought made him actually laugh.

But well, since the man was no longer living, it was up to him now to carry out the wish then.

"Alright then, everybody…" he began. Two of the Earth Dwellers rose up out of the ground and performed a pincer attack, coming at him from both sides. In one swift motion, he spun and swung his massive sword diagonally, cutting their heads off with nary a grunt of exertion.

"Time to make these punks pay!"

Roaring in unison, the crowd all but sprung to life now, following his charge into the fray.

Lucien was by no means someone who enjoyed combat all that much… but as he leapt into the crowd of Grimm, he couldn't help but smile as he got to work.

* * *

Back in Vale, specifically the residential area, Tenebrous let out a sound that might have been a hum.

Through its connection to the Grimm, it could detect if only marginally what was going on. And the turn of events occurring throughout all the lands was enough for the god to feel something akin to contentment.

Humanity was beginning to fight back in earnest.

After all this time, perhaps what it and its deceased other half had always desired might be coming true now…

But that was still a bit too much to hope for, perhaps. After all, humanity was still very much in the dark about the origins of the Grimm, about what they represented. Given time, Tenebrous was sure that would change, but for now it was more than happy – yes, _happy_ – to know that humanity would struggle so strongly against beings that long ago had been considered too terrifying for them to go up against.

But it was letting itself get distracted a little bit. That wouldn't do.

It's been several minutes since Jaune had departed from this area and therefore had been several minutes since it's gotten to work.

It'd mainly focused on switching in between its current physical form and its more incorporeal form, looking around for any remaining civilians in the area first. It would use its fog-like form to seep into each household silently and search, whereupon finding anyone left behind, it would coil around them and rush them out of the homes.

It's already evacuated almost all the people left behind to shelters, but in doing so had caused a ruckus due to having to smash down any and all doors to keep the people it'd been transporting from accidentally hitting themselves on the way out.

As a result, it had sent the White Fang members into something of a frenzy, said individuals having managed to catch some glimpses of it transporting the civilians and opening fire. Thankfully, said civilians hadn't been hurt, but their sudden departure from their homes by what they no doubt considered an unknown entity followed by being shot at had caused a lot of negativity to brew.

It wouldn't be long before the Nevermores and Gryphons flying over Vale home in on the shelters thanks to this.

That meant it'd have to take down the White Fang presence still here and then go to protect the shelters as quickly as possible.

But despite the urgency, it wouldn't be that difficult to do. After all…

"Ahhhh! A monster!"

…They posed very little threat to it.

This was a point most obvious as several White Fang members opened fire on it, their bullets striking its physical form and failing to do so much as nick it.

It'd taken the liberty of manifesting in the middle of a little meeting these individuals had been having. Its sudden appearance had naturally taken them off guard and once they got a look at its physical form, so much like a Grimm's yet so different at the same time, they were quick to lose their cool.

The ensuing racket their frantic gunfire and yells were causing would work to Tenebrous' advantage; it would no doubt cause the other nearby terrorists to come running, saving it just a bit of time hunting them down.

So for the time being, it would focus on these ones first.

With a speed far too great for any of them to track, it reached out with one of its massive hands and gripped the head of the nearest grunt, said head trapped in a pincher hold that the god was doing with just three fingers. It gave the man's head a sudden shake, the sheer force of it causing his brain to rattle back and forth within his skull, resulting in a concussion and thereby instant knock out.

One of the other terrorists, an older woman with snake eyes and tongue, hissed in shock and terror as the Power turned its gaze onto her. She ceased firing and tried to run whilst the rest of them continued to shoot and back away.

The woman didn't make it very far when it threw the one it was holding at her. Hitting her hard enough to knock her out, Tenebrous then turned to face the rest.

With nary a sound, it moved quickly enough to blur from the remaining terrorists' collective sight. There was hardly a point in dragging this out, especially with everything else going on, so the god didn't bother holding back as much as it would otherwise.

So with simple shoves and pokes and stomps, Tenebrous took down the rest of the White Fang members in a literal instant, sending them all sprawling to the ground hard enough to crack the pavement underfoot.

Upon doing so, Tenebrous immediately rounded up their weapons and crushed them into pieces with just one simple squeeze of its massive hand.

The threat of these White Fang members now neutralized in short order, it believed that the only ones remaining were the ones piloting the bullheads still circling above Vale in addition to any others that had been dropped off in different parts of the city.

And of course, there was that one that had headed for Beacon's direction too, but Jaune was already heading there. It'd be best to leave that matter to its Apostle for now.

Tenebrous paused for a brief moment now to listen and to 'feel,' wishing to see what the situation was with the Grimm here.

Despite the noteworthy power and skill Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, and Bartholomew Oobleckt were displaying alongside the perimeter outside the wall, there were far too many Grimm to hold back successfully – sure enough, a few dozen were already making their way into the city. Now the perimeter formed within the city limits were beginning to engage the incoming Grimm.

Tenebrous hummed, somewhat unsure of what to do. It could vaguely sense Amber on the move, the Fall Maiden already seeming to be taking care of one or two cells of the White Fang off to Vale's northwest region, though it seemed she was keeping her maiden power a bit of a secret still.

For now, at least.

" **Very well then,"** spoke the god to itself.

If Amber was to be taking care of the White Fang for now, then it shall assist her in doing so. It'll leave the ground troops to her and anyone from the second perimeter that ought to have noticed the terrorists. As for itself, it shall focus on the bullheads now bombing parts of the city.

Concentrating ever so slightly, the upper part of its back began to bubble before massive wings formed and spread themselves outwards.

Giving them just a few testing flaps, Tenebrous then leapt high into the air as it flapped its wings for real.

Taking to the sky, it soared along at massively hypersonic speeds.

In no time at all, it began to ram into and through the White Fang's bullheads, bringing them low.

However, that was when something interesting began to happen.

" **Hmm?"**

Just as it destroyed several of the nearly dozen bullheads that had been pestering the Atlas military's own bullheads, many of the Nevermores and Gryphons began to screech…

…Right before altering their course and heading straight for it instead of the Atlas bullheads.

It would seem that Salem had finally decided to have the Grimm target the Power after all this time. This was in spite of the obvious power difference between them, even with the Power being only a shadow of its former self.

However…

Even Tenebrous knew that numbers could make quite a difference if applied properly.

So as literally every single avian Grimm within ten miles began to set their eyes on it, Tenebrous had only one thing to say.

" **Oh dear…"**

And then so the most clustered of airborne battles began in earnest.

* * *

In all the other kingdoms, the Grimm were steadily pressing onwards even in light of the resistance that formed to meet them.

And now, with the world-wide Grimm siege now well underway, it soon wasn't only the beasts of darkness that were combating humanity right now.

In all the kingdoms, dozens of bullheads bearing the symbol of the White Fang began to fly in between the Nevermores and Gryphons.

All of them bore just as many troops, eager to start their bloody revolution, so much so that they paid little attention to the fact that the Grimm were hardly even acknowledging their presence. All that mattered to them was that now was perhaps the only time they could truly stomp out humanity once and for all.

And sensing their bloodlust and glee through the Grimm around them, Salem sneered darkly. The resistance humanity had mounted was quite an annoyance, but seeing just how stupidly eager the White Fang were was just enough to lift her mood a little.

If only they knew what was awaiting them during the next part of the attack.

* * *

 **And so humanity begins to fight back! Hope you all liked how I went about showcasing the beginning of their resistance.**

 **And did any of you expect Jaune's dad of all people to be showing up? I'm genuinely curious. Speaking of him, basically he looks like Machio Naruse from this hilarious manga called Danberu Nan Kiro Moteru. Regarding the rest of the Arc family, they will be making a brief appearance too in the next chapter or so, so that'll be another thing you guys will hopefully look forward.**

 **Now I will say outright that the next chapter will be focusing mainly on the situations Jaune, Amber, and teams RWBY and JNPR are currently in. I may show a few scene transitions or simple statements indicating how the battle in other parts of Remnant are going, but the main focus will be those guys. And I do have a few surprises there, ha ha. I'm sure you guys will quite like it.**

 **Whelp, in any case, it'll be a while for the next chapter. In addition to me writing up yet another decent length chapter for my original novel, there will also be a few other personal things that need to get taken care of, so in all likelihood, it'll be about 2 weeks or so before I post the next chapter. Just giving you all a heads-up!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	44. Chapter 44

Managed to get the chapter for my novel done much faster than I thought, mainly due to deciding to cut out a few things. In other words, this chapter for DFD is out just a little earlier than I'd said it be. Ha, hopefully things can remain this way until the end!

As stated in the ending AN of the previous chapter, this chapter will primarily focus on Jaune, teams RWBY and JNPR and their respective struggles during the Trial as of now. Plus a surprise or two. In the meantime, things everywhere else in the kingdoms will continue to slowly become more chaotic as I'm sure you all expect it to be doing.

The fighting will be ramping up just a little bit more now! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 44

It was with a short gasp that Pyrrha realized just how much air got knocked out of her just now.

Out of the blue, this… this Grimm – it had to be a Grimm of some kind – had all but popped out of nowhere in the middle of their circle and had started to smack them all around as if they were untrained newbies.

The most frustrating part about this is that, while not full-fledged huntresses (huntsman in Ren's case), they weren't exactly slouches if Pyrrha could allow herself a moment of confidence. Yet this Grimm, looking to be some bizarre mix between an Alpha Beowulf and a Gryphon, had thrown them all away from one another with insulting ease.

The most terrifying part was that there was more than one of these things too. There were three, to be more precise.

And they've been smart enough to intentionally split them up.

Right now, it was her, Jeanne and Yang getting blown back by this Grimm while the others were being thrown around still by the other two.

The champion hardly had time to get a better look at her friends' current states before this terrifyingly malformed Grimm nearly stomped down on her head. It only missed because she rolled out of the way in time.

"Grah!" From somewhere to her left, Yang let out a cry, her eyes a fierce red as she charged forward at the Grimm. She threw a powerful haymaker that, much to the blonde's surprise as well as Pyrrha's, was caught with ease by this unknown Grimm.

Then it flapped its massive wings and flew forward, smashing through several trees as if they weren't even there. Yang had been dragged along for the ride and Pyrrha could only watch helplessly as the Grimm then altered its sudden flightpath, traveling up into the air for several dozen yards before letting go of Yang.

As soon as it did this, it immediately turned and divebombed directly into the blonde brawler and they both went smashing into the ground.

The Mistral champion had switched her weapon to its gun form and tried to shoot at it just prior to it striking Yang, but to no avail – it'd been far too fast, much faster than any other Grimm she's dealt with before.

"Yang!" cried out Jeanne, the team leader finally back on her feet after having been smacked against a thick tree just a moment prior. She seemed fairly okay, with only her clothes looking to be really damaged, but she looked to be panting fiercely. Pyrrha had no doubt that the adrenaline must be hitting the girl quite hard. The same could be said for herself after all.

Debris had been sent flying everywhere then the Grimm and Yang had hit the ground, making it impossible to see anything. But then those massive wings of the Grimm flapped audibly and all the dust was blown away.

Or rather, was blown directly towards her and Jeanne.

Realizing that this was to make them stand still for a little longer, Pyrrha grabbed hold of Jeanne and yanked her down to the ground alongside her. Sure enough, just as they did so, the Grimm – seriously, just what should she even call this kind of Grimm? – flew directly over them, its powerful arms and wings having clearly been intended to cut them up.

Getting back up quickly, Pyrrha turned and opened fire on the Grimm just as it began to turn around. Her bullets hit their marks, but barely even pierced its flesh. The only shots that seemed to do anything were the ones aimed at the wings and even then it looked to be minimal at best.

The Grimm landed and seemed to sneer at them, its face looking to be some weird cross between an Alpha Beowulf's snout and a Gryphon's beak. This odd combination of features caused a sense of vertigo to start striking Pyrrha and it was all she could for a brief second to not gag.

Those features… they just looked so _wrong_. Grimm may not exactly be beautiful things to behold, but this one managed to look outright unearthly.

The vertigo passed as the weird malformed Grimm began to tense up, taking up a stance that clearly indicated it was about to pounce.

Raising her shield, Pyrrha tried to figure out what to do next, but was coming up blank.

The Grimm's physical strength was far greater than theirs, even greater than Yang's. Its speed was no joke either and its massive wings gave it not only the option of flight, but were completely unhindered by the fairly thick forestry around it.

And what's more… like all the other Grimm recently, it seemed smarter for lack of a better word. Her usual tactics wouldn't work.

What was she to do? Just what can she do? What can she d-?

"Pyrrha," Jeanne suddenly said, startling her. "The second it pounces, dodge to the right. As you do that, use your semblance to launch me forward!"

She hardly got a chance to question her leader's sudden command when the Grimm promptly pounced at lightning speed.

Immediately, she threw herself to the right, just barely out of the Grimm's range. Just as she did so, she saw out of the corner of her eye as Jeanne threw her shield onto the ground and slid on it like a child. Her sword, Crocea Mors, was held firmly in her grasp as she slid across the ground, the Grimm looking like it was about to pass her in just another split second.

And that was when Pyrrha obeyed the second part of the girl's command.

Using her semblance of polarity, she manipulated every single bit of steel that Jeanne had on her, from her shield to her sword to her armor. Jeanne ended up sliding forward much faster than before and with Pyrrha's semblance working alongside her own natural movements, she swung her blade upwards much faster and harder than she was normally capable of.

It connected with the Grimm just as it passed overhead, the blade cutting into its chest and working its way down as the two passed one another completely now.

Jeanne went tumbling awkwardly thereafter, at least until Pyrrha used her semblance to stop her tumbling and lift her back on her feet.

As for the Grimm, it landed feet first on the ground and let out a howl of anger. When it turned, Pyrrha saw the result of Jeanne's command and action, a cut that started at its chest and went straight down all the way. It was a minor injury, but it was certainly a deeper one than any of the bullets she'd fired at it.

Pyrrha couldn't help but smile. Leave it to her leader to be able to still retain her wits about her.

The sounds of fighting off somewhere behind her snapped her out of her reverie, however. Judging by the gunfire and hacking, it seemed like their friends were fighting admirably against these unusual Grimm.

What's more, she could now see a battered Yang rise up from where she hit the ground earlier, looking positively pissed and ready for some payback.

Instinctively, Pyrrha moved to her a left a bit just as Jeanne jogged forward too. With Yang coming up from behind the Grimm, they'd formed a triangle formation around it.

Said Grimm had retracted its wings a bit and seemed to look around it, realizing the situation now. Then it traced a claw lightly over its most recent injury and before letting out a sound that could probably be mistaken for _laughter_.

It was dark and arrogant in tone and it was enough now to make Pyrrha bristle. Sure, the injury was quite light, but to think that this Grimm would actually mock them for it-!

Taking up a more aggressive stance, Pyrrha readied herself alongside Jeanne. Yang was itching for some payback pretty badly too, judging by her almost feral posture.

The Grimm itself ceased its laughter and shifted in a crouching stance, its red eyes locked onto her and Jeanne.

Unlike a moment ago where simply letting at it left her feeling sick, Pyrrha stared back without issue now, too worked up and too focused on taking advantage of her own anger to be affected any longer.

The Grimm then moved and the three of them moved as well.

* * *

Several dozen yards away, Blake found herself off to a better start than the others just now, not that the girl truly realized this.

She was quite focused on dodging right now, you see.

And oh how frantically she dodged.

This Grimm, looking like some cross between an Alpha Beowulf and a Gryphon, seemed to favor ground based combat as opposed to utilizing its wings. One would think this would work to her and her friends' advantage given they all held the range, but this turned out to not be the case at all.

For reasons the girl could only fathom, this sickening looking Grimm was terrifyingly fast, even more so than the other equally odd Grimm that had attacked them just moments ago.

An additional pounce from it that nearly resulted in her stomach being clawed at merely backed this up.

Backflipping and opening fire with Gambol Shroud in its gun form, Blake let out a sound of complete disgruntlement as her bullets did little harm to the Grimm, which seems to have stopped moving for the time being.

And she discovered why an instant later, when it leapt back just as a glyph formed under its position. The glyph had been white, but turned black a split second later. Upon doing so, a suction-like effect took place, trying to draw the Grimm to it.

Said creature had landed by then and had planted itself firmly into the ground, its claws digging deep into it. It budged, but nothing more.

Nonetheless, Blake saw an opportunity and so did the other two that had remained more or less by her side when these unknown Grimm had split them up.

For just as she dashed forward to engage in close combat, Weiss and Ren appeared to join her, the two having hung back momentarily to prepare their respective attacks.

Weiss canceled the glyph just as the three of them leapt over it and they all struck in unison at the Grimm, which hadn't been expecting them to cancel it out. Blake struck out with the heavy yet sharp sheath for her blade, knowing that against its tough hide, additional force was needed. She aimed for its arm while Weiss used a small white glyph to accelerate her own piercing attack for its throat. Ren moved to its right and slashed at its torso.

But despite their varying blows, one thing they definitely did target together was the Grimm's center mass. For sure enough, their respective strikes did little in the ways of genuine harm to it, with even Blake's heavy attack only mildly cutting the arm. As such, the three trainees smashed into the Grimm head on, their combined weight along with surprise managing to make the Grimm stumble back and nearly fall onto its back.

Unfortunately, it recovered faster than Blake ever would've liked and it actually did a backflip in the process. Its massive foot lashed out during this maneuver and it was going straight for Weiss.

In that brief second before impact, she shared a look with the heiress and both understood what to do. The same black glyph from before appeared several feet behind them and its gravitational pull dragged the three of them back before the attack connected.

By then, the Grimm had recovered and lunged for Ren, but the young man proved swift enough to avoid it by rolling to the left, using his Stormflower to pepper it with bullets, enhanced by his aura, in the process.

That was when Blake took to the offensive, switching Gambol Shroud into their blade forms and rushing up to it. It sensed her coming and swung its right arm back in a vicious backhand that probably would've given her a concussion were it not for a quick use of her semblance. The very second her clone formed, it took the hit for her and she jumped just high enough to twirl over the Grimm. Initially, she'd wanted to go for its wings, which have retracted, but the thing is they've retracted so much that trying to cut them off would involve pretty much having to be crawling on its back.

So she aimed for its right eye instead. Her attack hit her mark.

The Grimm let out a brief howl of surprise and pain, but scarcely deterred it from retaliating almost immediately. It brought down its left fist and this time she couldn't avoid it since she was still in midair. Even when she used her semblance once more, the Grimm's attack merely cut right through the clone and struck her anyways, the blow barely even slowed down.

She cried as she was slammed into the ground, her head practically bouncing against the hard earth and leaving her disoriented.

Not even a full second later, the Grimm kicked at her and she only knew it was a kick in current state because she felt its toes almost fully pierce through her aura as it launched her through several trees at bullet speeds.

Hitting the ground after that, she tried to get back up and shake the cobwebs out of her head. Doing this, she could see Weiss and Ren engaged in hit-and-run tactics, the two alternating the directions they attacked from.

Unfortunately, their attacks were doing very little damage to the unnatural Grimm. While certainly much stronger than their slender yet lithe frames would suggest, Weiss and Ren simply didn't have the strength necessary to do much harm in one blow. And given the thick forestry around them, having enough room to build up much needed momentum was a hard thing to pull off even with Weiss' versatile semblance.

Fully up now, Blake struggled to think of some kind of plan. The three of them certainly had a wide range options available to them given their fighting styles, but they suffered from any real firepower. Firepower that was desperately needed against this thing.

Gambol Shroud began to feel heavy in her hands as her mind continued to work frantically. It didn't help when the sounds of Nevermores and Gryphons became increasingly louder and more numerous far up above. She'd been aware of the aerial combat going on, but only vaguely. And now it seemed like the sheer number of Grimm were proving to be too much for even Atlas' many bullheads and smaller airships. This was something very much established when the sounds of fighting coming from back at Beacon became increasingly louder and more ominous.

"Just what is even going on…?!" she couldn't help but mutter. Despite the pick-me-up in the form of the dance, she still wouldn't quite say she's mentally recovered from the bombshells dropped on her during her conversation with Jaune Arc. Combined with the sudden appearance of all these Grimm and especially these three odd ones, her normally tough nerves were beginning to fray.

Too much was going on recently for any sane person to handle easily and she was naturally no exception. Just because she was often the calm looking one didn't mean she actually was calm.

She shook her head, trying to rid herself of her sudden doubts and thoughts. As much as she'd like to sit back and try to mentally piece everything together, now simply wasn't the time for this.

Blake then began to take a few steps forward – only to then stop when, much to her shock, an all too familiar blade was pressed up against the side of her throat followed by an all too familiar voice answering her question from just a few seconds ago.

"Revolution, Blake," spoke a darkly smirking Adam as he now approached from behind her. His voice did little to hide the outright murderous glee and anger he no doubt felt.

Blake could only remain rooted in place from complete and overwhelming shock as more and more members of the White Fang began to quiet step out from within the thick forestry.

"A-Adam…?" was all she could say.

He seemed to ignore her and instead continued on with what he'd started to say. His blade seemed to flash with bloodlust as he did so.

"It's high time humanity is put into its proper place… and I'm here to make it happen."

* * *

Ruby and Nora were the only two left out of the original bunch and they were the ones that were perhaps the furthest away from the others, the sounds of all the fighting sounding so much more distant to them.

But then, it wasn't as if they had the luxury of being able to stand around and listen closely.

As if to punctuate this point, Nora could only let out a startled cry as she was slammed face-first through a thick tree.

"Guh!" the Valkyrie uttered as the hand that had been gripping her head let go, allowing her to unceremoniously slump onto the ground.

Distinctly aware of blood now trickling out through her nose, Nora turned and looked back to see the Grimm, which appeared to look like a fusion of other Grimm, switch its attention to Ruby, who held Crescent Rose in a defensive posture.

Following the appearance of this unusual Grimm, both teams had been separated so suddenly and so damned quickly that it'd been practically impossible to respond properly. Before any of them knew it, they'd all been forced into different parts of the forest, not that it mattered much given the thick forestry.

One would think that a duo made up of a heavy hitter such as herself and a speedy and ranged combatant like Ruby would make for a pretty good combo, but such hadn't been the case so far.

This Grimm, whatever exactly it was, was kicking their asses.

And it was obvious to the normally bubbly girl why.

First and foremost, it was strong, tough and fast, these three traits being far greater than either of them could have expected a Grimm of its size to be. Secondly, the landscape simply wasn't working to their advantage. Thirdly and most importantly, however, this thing was smart.

It would always focus on one of them at a time and while that sounded simple and dumb in theory, in practice was a different story. Unlike them, the surrounding area mattered little to it since it could smash through trees like they're not even there and while this certainly resulted in more maneuvering room for them over time, the same applied for it as well and it knew how to use this to its advantage, taking flight in short and small bursts to dodge their attacks and flank them. And by briefly incapacitating one of them even for a moment, this allowed it to keep things one on one consistently.

Such a realization was enough to make Nora genuinely shiver in fright. Not even the Grimm during the Breach had been this smart nor this aggressive.

This didn't stop, however, from getting back into the fight.

Raising Magnhild in its gun form, she took only a second to sniffle her nose, unmindful of the blood. Then she fired at the eerie Grimm, shooting three rounds in rapid succession.

The first round struck it in the side of its head, making it cry in shock. But it raised its arm in time to shield its head from the other two rounds. It turned afterwards to glare at her viciously, a glare that she returned fearlessly.

It also took its focus away from Ruby, who now silently crept up behind it and then quickly swung Crescent Rose just as Nora charged forward, switching Magnhild to its hammer form.

But to the surprise of both trainees, the Grimm seemed to have anticipated their respective movements, for it spread its wings back just enough so that the right wing ended up smashing right into Ruby's attack, said wing burying itself just under Crescent Rose' blade.

This had the effect of stopping Ruby in her tracks and the young girl ended up smacking rather comically against the wing itself. Then the Grimm _flipped forward_ and did what could only be called an axe-kick. Nora, too close to dodge, raised Magnhild and blocked the strike, but it was a heavy blow and so she ended up falling onto her butt.

The Grimm then flapped its wings and took flight, heading straight up before beginning to fly around almost haphazardly. Nora, getting back up, could only watch helplessly as Ruby got dragged along for the ride. She could fire at it, but the chance of missing or even worse hitting Ruby was far too high.

Fortunately, she saw Ruby place her finger on her weapon's trigger. The young leader of team RWBY's next action seemed obvious – with the positioning of Crescent Rose, firing a round or two could possibly cause the recoil to help Ruby slice through its wing.

But before Ruby could carry out this action, the damned Grimm seemed to be almost clairvoyant in its intuition, for it suddenly retracted the pinning wing as it did a roll in mid-flight, freeing itself from Crescent Rose just as Ruby fired.

The result was Ruby all but blasting herself towards the ground while the Grimm stretched out its wing once more and properly took flight again. The only good thing was that the girl managed to land on her feet.

That was when the Grimm came back down, barreling straight for the ground before curving at the last possible second so that it now flew parallel to the rocky earth, mere inches above it.

And it was heading directly for her.

Twirling Magnhild around to build up some momentum, Nora prepared herself for impact. Meanwhile, Ruby switched Crescent Rose into its more compact gun form and started shooting at the Grimm.

It let out a minor howl as bullets peppered in, but it barely even slowed in its movements.

Letting it get a little closer, Nora now let out a battle cry as she swung Magnhild at it. But once more, it caught her off guard. The Grimm closed up its wings and did a little roll across the ground as it neared her.

Then just before Magnhild could connect with it, it ceased its rolling and kicked into the ground, launching itself forward at a far greater speed than it had already been moving at.

A solid hit. That was the only way Nora could describe what happened as the creature slammed headfirst into her stomach. Almost all the air was knocked right out of her and when they both went slamming through a thick tree, the rest of the air was lost from her lungs.

Still, she wasn't about to just take this lying down, figuratively speaking of course.

Despite the two of them still traveling forward, Nora managed to switch her weapon into its gun form and smacked it harshly several times against the Grimm's back until it finally began to move, either from pain or simple annoyance. This gave her just enough room to then properly kick at it, all that time she and the others have spent training under Jaune and professor Goodwitch allowing the bubbly girl to execute a most graceful high kick that impact right against the side of the Grimm's face.

It was very slight, but her kick managed to slightly chip part of the bony white material across its face, something which evidently earned her its ire.

It raised its fist to attack her… only for Ruby to come barreling into its exposed back like a miniature comet, the girl having used all this new open space to build up some genuine momentum finally. The Grimm roared as Ruby had slammed Crescent Rose into it and that roar grew in volume as the girl opened fire at point-blank range.

Nora, having rolled out of the way when this had happened, watched as the recoil from the first few shots launched Ruby away from the now tumbling Grimm and together they both looked on with smiles of minor triumph as the beast went rolling deeper into the forest for a moment.

"Sheesh, what a tough one!" Nora finally commented. If she was being honest with herself, however, that may very well be an understatement. Not only was this Grimm much stronger, tougher, and faster than any other Grimm of a similar size, it was also obviously capable of strategy to some extent.

But alas, better to comment than to not – helped keep her mind off her friends, if only for a brief moment. The more she talked, the less her concern for their safety right now would impact her own performance in battle. "So. Any ideas here? It's already getting back up, by the sounds of it. And I think I can hear some fighting going on back at Beacon too…"

She glanced up for a few seconds to see Nevermores and Gryphons of varying sizes flying towards Beacon, the bullheads of the Atlas military no longer in sight. She wasn't sure if they had simply spread further out than she'd thought… or if they'd already been taken down.

She tried not to dwell too much on which was more possible. It didn't help that the roars of the Grimm were louder than the roars of gunfire and explosives.

"I do have something," Ruby then said, snapping her out of her split-second funk. "It's something I'd been planning to save until we were all super outnumbered, but against a Grimm this tough and with the others attacking our friends, I don't think it'll do us much good to keep holding onto it."

"Great, so what is it?" Nora asked, just a tad bit of panic in her voice. The Grimm was definitely back on its feet now. It was now all but lumbering forward, its eyes visible even from within the thick forestry.

"You'll see." Ruby seemed to smile almost giddily.

Was it just Nora's imagination though, or did Ruby's eyes also glow just a little bit there?

"But it'll take about half a minute for me to pull it off – takes a lot of concentration. Think you can keep it off me for that long?" Ruby then asked of her, her smile now gone. She hefted Crescent Rose defensively as the Grimm began to move forward a bit more quickly.

In fact, almost as if sensing their intentions now, the Grimm began to dash forward with increasing speed. Its wing spread out and then inwards haphazardly, smashing through branches and creating what amounted to a smokescreen formed entirely from splinters and dust and leaves.

Nora gripped her weapon tightly as she stepped in front of Ruby. "That might be a pretty tall order to fill…" she muttered. But she was smiling like a loon. "But I'm game!"

Dashing forward, she switched Magnhild back into its hammer form and then swung at the ground, creating a tremor that made the trees shudder. The Grimm audibly stumbled from within the smokescreen it had formed and this provided Nora all she needed to then swiftly switch her weapon back to its gun form and fire.

The familiar sight of a pink explosion went off within the smoke screen, blowing it away whilst also revealing the now staggering form of the Grimm. The explosive round had impacted against its lower chest, judging by the explosion's position and it managed to do more damage than anything has up to this point. Not enough to make that much of a difference, though.

Yet the sight of this was enough to spur Nora onwards as Ruby hanged back.

Running forward now, Nora was only vaguely aware of a light now slowly blossoming behind her, silver in color. Only vaguely was she reminded of a similar yet far brighter light appearing during the Breach and despite paying little attention to this, it too motivated her.

The explosion faded and the Grimm, no longer staggering, glared at her. It took a step forward and spread out its arms, as if to try and get her in a hug when she got close enough.

But she was no fool.

Jumping towards it, Nora spun vertically several times, firing two rounds in the process. Her aim wasn't perfect; the resulting explosions were near the Grimm, but not exactly harming it directly. But that was the point. The 'missed' shots drew its attention somewhat off her enough to switch to her hammer and swing it downwards at the Grimm's head.

An arm shot forth to block it and, on instinct, Nora fired another round just as Magnhild struck the forearm. The strength of her blow combined with the fired round resulted in knocking back the Grimm's arm, the fur singed and its flesh looking actually hurt now.

It let out a startled howl before using its wings to propel itself backwards.

The light emitting from behind her – from Ruby – built up even more and Nora could see something akin to worry building within the Grimm's eyes as it looked past her.

Moreover, the Grimm chose to act on this worry as it then pounced to the left and began to leap forward, its wings flapping in order to give itself more speed.

"Oh no you don't!" Nora shouted as she stopped where she was and slammed Magnhild into the ground. The tremor that was unleashed shook the entire area just as the Grimm had leapt forward, being just enough to throw it off balance.

But it recovered quite well, flapping its wings to gain flight just as it had been about to fall. It then turned in the air and headed for Nora, flipping around in order to slam its feet into her.

She raised Magnhild in time to guard with its hilt, but the strength and momentum behind the strike was enough to nearly knock her down. Nora managed to firmly plant herself to keep from falling, but the blow still succeeded in making her skid back.

To her surprise, rather than try to go after Ruby again, the Grimm merely turned its head in the girl's general direction before letting out a sound Nora had never heard before. Then before she could do anything else, the Grimm's feet which resembled that of a Gryphon's more so than an Alpha Beowulf's, opened up and wrapped its feet around where her hands were placed on Magnhild, locking both her and her weapon firmly within its grip.

She barely got a chance to cry out in surprise before the Grimm began to fly upwards, gaining altitude rapidly.

It was at this very moment as well that the building silver light ceased to be followed by a startled and pained cry that immediately drew Nora's attention.

Right there, where Ruby was, the girl had been knocked to the ground, a mace having struck her in the small of her back. Were it not for the girl's aura, it would've done some severe damage.

But that was not what now had Nora feeling so utterly shocked.

"W-White Fang?!" she managed to say as the Grimm soared ever higher into the sky.

The last thing she saw before she was too far away was the sight of nearly several White Fang members creeping out of the forest, surrounding Ruby.

And in that moment, all Nora could do was cry out in fear.

* * *

Jaune kept on running, frustration mounting within him, something was rather uncommon given his usual disposition.

But it was to be expected under the circumstances, what with how many Grimm had attempted to get in between him and Beacon.

"Damn it!" he couldn't help but roar out as he kicked through a Gryphon's head, the Grimm dying instantly.

This marked what felt like the hundredth Grimm he's slain and in doing so, making very little progress towards his destination.

A trip that should've taken around half a minute at most was turning out to be much longer as virtually every Grimm he's killed thus had made it a point to appear almost directly in front of him and well within his personal space, having resulted in several crashes and tumbles.

Needless to say, it would seem that the foremost perimeter was unable to keep out every single Grimm and the second perimeter that lied within Vale itself was facing similar circumstances, judging by the variety of sounds he was hearing from within the heart of the city. It didn't help that little could really be done about the Nevermores and Gryphons either considering most if not all of Atlas' airships and bullheads were having to choose between dealing with the White Fang's bullheads and the Grimm.

These facts did little to quell his frustration, however.

It was at this point that he sensed something coming at him from above, signified ever so slightly by the flapping of massive wings.

Forced to do a backflip, he landed several yards away from where he'd initially been. Upon looking up, his Aura Vision felt like it was going crazy.

Seeing Grimm was impossible for they lacked aura. The only way he could truly see them was if the saturation of aura within the area was great enough to highlight their forms. Given that everyone had aura and being here still within the city even if on its outskirts now, this meant that the level of aura saturation was high enough for him to spot the Grimm attacking him without too much trouble.

But this one, seeming like some bastardized Grimm unlike anything he's ever seen, stood out a lot. Because it had _aura_.

His shock at this as the Grimm, upon landing, stood up to its full height, was mitigated somewhat by the second realization that this aura didn't so much seem to be genuinely resonating from within the Grimm, but rather that it had simply suddenly appeared without warning.

The aura was pitch black with shades of crackling red. It was twisted beyond reasoning and spoke of nothing but hatred.

And noting this, he couldn't keep himself from speaking. "Salem?"

And now to his shock again, the Grimm seemed to actually _speak_ , clearly with a voice that wasn't its own.

" _Jaune Arc…"_ spoke the voice. Clearly that of a woman, but dripping with so much malice and arrogance that it managed to make the voice sound less than human. _"I believe this is the first time us Apostles have ever met."_

Jaune tensed up; her voice, seemingly projected directly into his head rather than physically aloud, seemed to be resonating across the area. More and more Grimm were quickly approaching. Any way he could've gotten past this weird looking Grimm, some cross between an Alpha Beowulf and a Gryphon, had vanished as quickly as he'd taken note of them.

This Grimm seemed to be serving as a conduit though. Meaning if he took it down, then Salem might very well not be able to continue drawing Grimm to him like this.

So before the woman in question could continue whatever little speech she must surely have planned, Jaune made his move.

Putting on a sudden burst of speed towards this fused Grimm, he threw a punch aimed directly for its throat.

Alas, his attack failed – a literal instant before his fist connected, the Grimm had flapped its wings to propel itself back just as a Nevermore half its size flew straight down into the path of the attack. It sacrificed itself for this fused Grimm, dissipating instantly as Jaune's fist tore through it like wet paper.

He was only marginally surprised at this and followed up with another attack, letting his punch's momentum carry him forward to deliver a spin kick.

But now the fused Grimm took flight and proceeded to land on top of a nearby building. As it did so, several Gryphons from up in the sky flew downwards and landed by it sides, forming a protective circle as it then backed up a few steps.

Jaune immediately turned away and hoped to dash off towards Beacon again, but just as he turned, more and more Grimm began to appear and form a perimeter. What's more, the very ground itself seemed to suddenly reshape itself, forming a wall just behind the Grimm that quickly grew meters in height.

Needless to say, this surprised him more. "What?!"

Through that fused Grimm, he heard Salem laugh and he focused back on it. He noticed that its hand was raised and he could see Salem's aura acting through the outstretched limb and affecting the ground where the wall had risen from.

He couldn't help but feel mind-boggled in that split second – Salem could channel her power through the Grimm?!

" _Well, aren't you an impatient one,"_ Salem said dryly. _"And here I was hoping we could talk, Apostle to Apostle."_

"About what?" Jaune all but snapped.

" _Your surrender."_

Jaune couldn't help but blink stupidly at those words. It took him a whole second to process what he'd just heard before he could finally bring himself to retaliate.

But before he could, Salem spoke again.

" _As you can clearly tell, my Grimm hold the overwhelming advantage in numbers. Although I will reluctantly admire how quickly you and humanity managed to prepare for this Trial, it's only a matter of time until you're overwhelmed… I'd dare say, the White Fang isn't much needed to deal with you lot, really, but, heh, it could make things happen just a bit faster, I suppose,"_ she said through the Grimm. Her mannerisms were leaking through far more than in just her voice; the Grimm even mimicked some movements that he imagined Salem herself would do.

" _And as you can also tell, I'm able to manifest my very mind and power through any Grimm I choose – I know, even I was surprised. I suppose when the Mind set the rules for this Trial, it included more than just how many Grimm I can influence prior to it… hmm."_

The revelation that even Salem was surprised by this new ability of hers did little to calm him. If anything, it did the opposite. Jaune was beginning to feel agitated. His main goal was to get back to Beacon and ensure everyone was pulling through, especially his sister and her friends. But with this wall up and being continually strengthened by aura, Jaune doubted he'd be able to punch through it that easily, even with his strength being significantly greater than it ever was before. And the Grimm all around him wouldn't be sitting by either.

Nonetheless, he scooted just a tad bit closer towards the wall, feeling the eyes of the Grimm on him. He'd have to wait until their guard dropped before trying anything, even if it was only for a millisecond.

This was something that didn't seem lost on Salem either. _"Ha. Go ahead. Try to break through,"_ she said through a _different_ Grimm, one that was by the wall, though Jaune couldn't tell which one; Salem's aura was now shifting around constantly for him to get a lock on it.

" _Face it. Humanity will end. If not by today, then tomorrow before the Trial ends. You know as well as I do what odds your oh so precious humans now face. And even with the Power still by your side, it still won't be enough. It can't be everywhere at once, especially not in its current state."_

Salem's aura switched to another Grimm. _"And oh how far it's fallen indeed. To think that back at its full strength, it had enough power to destroy the entire moon and perhaps even enough to crack the entire planet. Instead, it only used enough strength to break the moon partially all that time ago, before written history came about. It had done so foolishly in the hopes the show of strength would unite humanity against a common enemy, only to end up scaring them all away instead. And sure enough… humanity forgot all about it and went onto hating and killing themselves once more."_

She switched to another Grimm again. _"Over and over… humanity is a broken record, one I've long grown sick of. Never learning, never growing… their time has passed long ago. And I, as an Apostle and as the Mind, will do my duty; I will 'correct' them all."_

"By killing off all humanity?" Jaune managed to finally say, getting a lock on Salem's aura, which now resided within a Boarbatusk that had undoubtedly managed to get past the first two perimeters. "Not exactly an impartial decision on your part."

He knew only a little as to why and how Salem became the way she is. And while he could sympathize with what little he knew, it was nowhere near an excuse to justify all this killing. He may not exactly be a saint, but Salem was far more than just a sinner.

Salem's aura slowly switched to one of the Gryphons up on the building. He could practically see her sneering through the Grimm. _"Maybe not. I can admit to that much at least. But if you're looking to talk me down, it's pointless. I've made my peace with who I am long ago. And I swear I will make humanity pay for what was done back then. Starting with Ozpin. But I digress. Again, we're here to discuss your surrender."_

And it was on that note, that she switched once more. _"Human you may be – still be – but you're an Apostle, much like myself. Out of respect for this fact, I will spare your life if you become willing to serve me. Together, we can create a better world, one without humanity to rot it away. Of course, we'll have to do away with the Power first in such a scenario since it'd never stand for it. What say you?"_

Jaune felt gobsmacked. Completely so. "Let me be concise here: hell no!" he said upon finding his voice once more. "Don't act as if you genuinely believe what you say!"

"… _Hmph, I suppose I was a bit foolish to even imagine you possibly surrendering, much less join me. Oh well. A whim I'll never be repeating."_ She then switched once more, this time back to the fused Grimm she'd initially manifested in. _"But even then, just what choice do you even have, hmm? Do you truly believe you have what it takes to stop me? You should know as well as I do that in your current state, killing me would be near-impossible. Even if you did succeed, the Grimm would be without a Mind to keep them reined in… and do you really think humanity can deal with that outcome?"_

Jaune remained silent. For he had no real comeback to Salem's words. As she said, killing her wasn't in the cards, for doing so would only cause the Grimm to go completely berserk. Furthermore, while physically he was pretty sure he was stronger than Salem, in terms of overall power, that most likely wasn't the case. Whatever exactly her semblance was combined with decades to practice it, Salem would have a leg up on him at all times in a direct confrontation. Assuming he ever even got to meet her up close, that is.

All he could do was simply clench his fists tightly, nearly piercing through his own aura to draw blood. He turned his gaze towards the wall again. Faintly, he could hear the sounds of fighting coming from Beacon's direction.

"Jeanne…" he whispered.

Time was running out and fast. Waiting for an opening may no longer be an option, lest the risks continue to rise. But if he was going to bust through the Grimm and the wall and make it to Beacon in record time, he was going to have to…

"…My semblance," he muttered.

It's something he'd tried long ago to unlock and at one point, before Tenebrous had come along, he'd thought he'd succeeded at this endeavor. But Tenebrous had stated otherwise. It was far from unlocked, but at the same time was unusable since his body as it currently was wasn't tough enough to withstand it yet.

But he'd grown much stronger and tougher since then. And his vast aura reserves were more available to him than ever before, signifying that he was close to being ready…

…Was he ready enough, though? Trying to force it could very well lead to the destruction of his body, which there was no coming back from if it wasn't strong enough. He'd be of no use to anyone if he ended up killing himself by accident like that.

" _Ha. I can see it in those blind eyes of yours… you're thinking of forcing your ascension, much like I did,"_ Salem said, grabbing his attention. _"As the Mind's Apostle, I didn't have to much worry over a power overload, but you certainly do. Think you can actually handle it? Personally, I doubt it."_

" _You know something? I've been keeping tabs on you and your precious sister ever since I'd first sensed the Power becoming active once again. I've watched from afar via small Nevermores as you played the role of 'assistant professor' at that damned man's pathetic school. I must say, it'd been quite amusing – an outsider might have watched all that you've done and perhaps label you a… what's that term again?... ah, a Gary Stu, I believe it is, just someone so much better than others in almost every respect. Oh, just how wrong someone would be in believing it though. You constantly stumble about, just trying to figure out your next step. You've struggled with fights in where you were objectively the stronger one in terms of pure physical ability, all because you're still learning how to properly fight. So many incidents, major and minor, could've been avoided if you and the Power had been more proactive… and yet you truly think that somehow you'll manage to overcome this Trial? You truly think you'll somehow save humanity from the smiting that they've long since deserved? I'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetic."_

Her taunting angered him, as was expected from a logical standpoint. But it did more than just anger him – it helped him make up his mind for good.

"I'll never know unless I try!" he roared.

And then he did it. He attempted to activate his semblance.

He tapped into the vast wellspring that was his aura and willed it into spilling forth. The effect was immediate – his muscles swelled and tore, bones creaked and began to break, his skin began to slightly tear and peel as his aura all but attempted to spill out directly into the world around him.

The pain was immense; He'd have screamed were he capable of it anymore, but his own aura was practically destroying his vocal chords. But beyond that, however, he felt one thing above all else:

Power.

Despite his current inability to make any verbal sound, he opened his mouth anyways, letting out a silent scream in place of an actual one. In doing so, he could see all the Grimm gathered, his own aura illuminating them completely through his Aura Vision, start to rapidly back away in genuine _fear_ as his gaze swept all over them.

Even Salem appeared taken aback, judging by the fluctuations in her aura.

This gave him the strength to soldier on and he finally took action.

What happened next occurred too quickly for even him to fully perceive, at least initially. One second, he'd been there, surrounded by Grimm and blocked off by that thick wall. The next second, all the Grimm that had been guarding the wall along with the wall itself had been completely wiped out along with the trees that had been unfortunate enough to be in his way as he ran through them, the remaining splinters falling to the ground long after he's passed.

Shock colored his face as he did this. The wall may not have looked like much, but it'd been exceptionally thick and further reinforced by Salem's aura. He doubted even a Goliath would have been able to smash through it easily yet he'd done so as if it hadn't even been there in the first place.

So great was his surprise at this massive boost that he only scarcely noted the aura signatures within the forest somewhere off to his left. But when he did, he found himself recognizing several of them instantly.

And worry naturally took over him upon making this realization. "Jeanne!" he yelled, his throat no longer feeling like it wasn't there.

There, several miles or so away was his sister along with her friends. There were a dozen or so other aura signatures that he didn't recognize, but he could clearly see them fighting against the others. And he could see the Grimm as well, his own aura so powerful and far reaching and bright that he could see them, being just like the one Salem had mainly communicate through just now.

He made these observations in a microsecond, perhaps even less than that. And just as quickly, he attempted to act, to go and help them.

But alas… he was unable to.

The thing about his sudden and vast increase in power was that it was currently just a bit too much beyond his control. When he attempted to stop and switch directions, the sheer speed at which he'd been moving at resulted in him skidding across the ground, through trees and boulders for _miles_.

It was comical, really. Or at least it would've been comical under far less dire circumstances.

So as he went slamming off into the mountains well away from Jeanne's current location, Jaune could only curse himself over this lack of control even as he dug his hands and feet into the ground to stop himself.

This power of his… to think he'd become capable of this kind of speed and the like just from tapping into his aura and semblance just a little bit… he couldn't fathom his full strength.

But one thing he did know was this – he'd damn well have to achieve his full potential soon and get full control over it too, otherwise the Trial was only going to get a lot worse.

* * *

"The hell was that?!" James, needless to say, sounded quite frantic when he said that.

Ozpin couldn't blame him. His nerves were feeling a little shot as well.

It hasn't been long at all since the Trial had started and already casualties had risen significantly. Reports were continually pouring in from all their allies and it was made apparent from the start that while humanity was giving as good as it's got, the Grimm's sheer numbers directed by Salem's orders and will were already pushing them back.

It didn't help that entire platoons of White Fang members had been making sudden appearances in the other kingdoms as well now.

The only good thing to come from this so far was that the White Fang presence within Vale was already being dealt with swiftly enough, but even this was tempered by the fact that they'd lost a number of huntsmen and huntresses and Atlas soldiers to this Trial already, be it directly to the Grimm or to the White Fang themselves.

And there was no doubt still some of those terrorists still running about – no way they already could've been taken down. This very likely possibility had only made him and James feel ever more on edge and it didn't help to see so many bullheads and jets taken down by either the White Fang's bullheads or the airborne Grimm.

Speaking of which, Grimm had started to finally reach Beacon and he could only look down below to see the students and teachers that had remained behind engage in combat with the Grimm. Despite the perimeters that had been formed, it wasn't as if the Grimm were going to simply come from one direction and they unfortunately lacked enough manpower to cover these other directions. From the very start, there was only so much that the first and second perimeters could do to keep the Grimm away from the city and from Beacon and now this was showing through.

Even with this airship's weapons already being put to good use by constantly blasting Grimm out of the sky, there were simply far too many. Furthermore, the Grimm were getting savvy as to the speed of the cannons' shots and their mobility and were now making sure to avoid them if possible. And it showed with how several cannons had already been destroyed, even with a handful of Atlas soldiers around to try defending them.

So to now see some streak of light suddenly blaze across the forest and slam into and _through_ one of the mountains off in the seeable distance was something both unexpected and worrying, even more so than everything else currently going on.

Ozpin fiddled with his cane in an attempt to stay calm. Just what had that been just now? Going purely by his own intuition, it didn't seem like something bad in and of itself, but the sheer suddenness of it bordered on surreal. There were already far too many deaths that have occurred and that number was sure to keep climbing despite their best efforts. The last thing any of them needed was something to distract them, intentionally or not.

"Remember your training," he then said into a radio, speaking to the teachers down below. "I know the Grimm keep pouring in, but don't lose faith! Keep fighting and show the students there how true huntsmen work!"

He'd said that partially to try and calm himself down a bit more, but to what avail, he couldn't tell. He itched to go down there himself and fight, but even with his own strength, he'd only make so much of a difference before the Grimm's ever rising numbers rendered his presence moot.

Still, to continue staying up here acting as commander was something that would only continue to bother him if he didn't directly do something of note.

"…Damn it all," he muttered.

Just a split second after he said that, James smashed his right fist against the guard rail, his mechanical arm's strength showcasing itself as said rail all but collapsed. "We're already running out of options here, Oz! There has to be something else we can do!"

Ozpin let out a sigh. "Barring us going into battles ourselves, I doubt there's much we can actually do for now."

"What about Qrow and his mission?" James then asked.

Ozpin now hummed. "No contact yet. I presume it's because he's still trying to work his way to her. And of course, there's also considering his 'help' too."

Just prior to the start of this Trial today, Ozpin had contacted Qrow and had requested the scythe user to attempt what could very well be the most important mission the man had ever done. And to get help from another person or two that could possibly help turn the tides.

Naturally, Qrow had all but deemed Ozpin insane for the idea, but had accepted it anyways. Often drunk or not, Qrow knew what was at stake.

Ozpin's grip on his cane tightened. Although the lack of contact with Qrow since then was to be expected, he still feared the possibilities that his mind was conjuring up.

Nonetheless, he tried to stay as positive as possible on this matter.

Humanity was very well depending on it, after all.

* * *

Of all the things Ruby had seen coming, getting ambushed by the White Fang had been pretty low on the list.

Still, she reacted admirably. Despite the cheap shot the thrown mace had gotten on her, once she hit the ground and turned over to see the incoming terrorists, she'd used her semblance to bolt well away from them.

But that hadn't stopped them from opening fire on her and their aim was pretty good, forcing her to focus more on outright dodging rather than counter attacking.

However, she was unable to move quite as fast as she normally could, the hits that Grimm and the mace had gotten on her having done some serious damage to her, even if her aura had softened the hits just enough to avoid actual injury so far.

Rushing into the trees, she ducked behind the thickest one she could find and sat there for a few seconds. The sound of gunfire filled her ears as bullets peppered the trees nearby, including the one she was behind.

Grimacing, she then looked up, trying to spot the Grimm somewhere up in the sky. It'd grabbed hold of Nora, after all and she was naturally worried for her friend. But the tree's branches were long and thick and obscured her view considerably.

She could hear it faintly though along with some of Nora's cries, which at least assured her that the hammer girl was still alive. But for how much longer? The young leader wasn't liking these odds.

Especially since she could hear the White Fang begin to approach her slowly. With them around, taking care of that Grimm would be tough since at this point, only her silver eyes would likely be enough to put an end to it.

But the amount of concentration required to pull it off as well as the time would be significant. In actuality, it'd take about half a minute, which wasn't really that long, but in situations like this? Might as well be forever.

In which case, she was going to have to take down these guys first or else she'll never be able to stop that Grimm.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby readied herself. With Crescent Rose in its more compact form, she waited until there was a slight lull in the gunfire and proceeded to peek out from behind the tree and return fire.

She didn't shoot that many bullets – only four shots in rapid succession – but she made sure to fire in the directions where the gunfire had been the loudest. And sure enough, she heard some screams of pain, indicating she'd hit her marks.

Now dashing out from behind the tree completely, she ran in a zig-zag pattern towards the now spread out group of terrorists.

The ones she'd shot had gone stumbling back, one of them even dropping her rifle. The others, however, saw her coming and quickly reloaded before resuming their shooting.

But by then, she'd closed the distance between them enough to jump and spin right past them, the sheer momentum of her charge being enough to lift and throw the remaining ones right off their feet despite not even directly hitting them. These White Fang members went flying back and smashed into either trees or the ground, some being knocked unconscious while others were simply hurt.

The ones that didn't get blown back by this maneuver, however, was quick to recover and forgo shooting in favor of close combat. Some drew blades and others were packing weapons much like that mace guy. A scant few charged at her unarmed.

These ones were fast, definitely faster than most of the other ones. And she didn't have time to transform her baby back into its scythe form.

Inwardly gulping, Ruby was forced to take these guys on with something of a handicap.

However, things were different.

Before, such a handicap would've spelled her doom – she sucked at unarmed fighting. Even if she was intellectually aware of certain concepts involved in unarmed combat, when it came to applying them, she was dreadful.

But the training provided to her by Jaune and professor Goodwitch over the school year so far and especially within the past few weeks had changed that considerably.

She still sucked at unarmed fighting, but when compared to how she was initially, she was definitely much better.

And it showed as she drew her head back at the last second, just barely avoiding a swipe of a blade that definitely would've drawn blood otherwise. She then ducked down and kicked out with her leg, hitting her attack in the side of the knee hard enough to bring the man down.

She then drew away and used her compact weapon to guard against and then deflect the mace wielding guy from before. She grunted harshly under the sheer force of the blow due to the attacker's greater bulk and strength, but successfully avoided harm before then leaping past him and directly into the range of the unarmed one, a tough looking Faunus girl with koala ears.

Perhaps a bit too close, her head all but touching the attacker's chest. This caused said terrorist to try backing up in order to grab her, but Ruby then jumped up and braced herself for impact as she bashed her head directly into the taller girl's jaw. Ruby saw stars as the terrorist's head snapped back from the blow and the young leader then kicked off the girl's stomach to move well away from the others.

Fighting back the urge to rub her head, Ruby readied herself for the next attacker, a knife user. But just as the remaining ones began to charge at her, she spotted the others she'd knocked down now getting back up, eliciting a surge of panic from within her.

But just as this occurred, an explosion took place up in the sky above followed by an ear-piercing howl. Then immediately after that, a shadow fell upon the White Fang members currently in front of her and Ruby's frightened expression was replaced with a smile.

She leapt back just as Nora finally came crashing down, smashing Magnhild into the ground.

Ruby had been ready for the resulting impact. The White Fang sure hadn't. The ones closest to ground zero of the shockwave and explosion were sent flying, the sheer force knocking them unconscious even before they hit the ground. The ones further away were knocked back down, but even the briefest of glances was enough to determine they weren't down for the count just yet.

Nora let out a massive sigh as Ruby and her looked upon one another. "That'd been way too close…" the normally lively girl muttered, a far cry from her usual self.

The two then shot each other relieved smiles and proceeded to stand next to one another as the remaining White Fang began to get up, some of them grabbing hold of any weapons that had been dropped nearby.

Then a shadow fell over the area and the odd Grimm they'd been fighting landed about ten meters away from them, its glare piercing and unforgiving. Its body, specifically its feet, were smoldering slightly.

"Your work?" Ruby quipped out of the blue as she readied Crescent Rose in its scythe form now.

"Yep. It just doesn't know to let go when a lady says no," Nora huffed out, shouldering Magnhild aggressively. Her expression was almost solemn however. "Sorry that I couldn't protect you for that half minute."

Ruby felt an urge to laugh for some reason, but she restricted herself to just a brief giggle. "No worries. Stuff happens. Maybe it's a sign anyways, telling me to save it for later or something."

As the remaining White Fang now got back on their feet, Ruby and Nora exchanged a second-long smile. While the sight of the White Fang standing next to this Grimm without any fright was certainly something worth noting, the two paid it very little mind.

Both the Grimm and the terrorists were out to get them both. To the two teens, this is what mattered most right now. Any questions their minds were now forming could wait until afterwards for answers.

It was time to get to work.

* * *

Jeanne just barely brought up her shield in time to defend against the punch this nightmarish looking Grimm threw. Even then, it still blew her off her feet.

Ordinarily, she'd have gone sailing helplessly back into the ground, but the past several weeks of training from her brother and professor Goodwitch along with her own training had done wonders for her. She still had a long way to go before she could even think of calling herself spectacular, but she was still able to flip around in mid-air and land on her feet.

She did so just in time to see Pyrrha and Yang team up against the Grimm, the former swiping at it with her weapon in its javelin form before backing away to let Yang attempt to hammer it with a powerful straight.

But the Grimm had moved back to avoid Pyrrha's precise strikes before using its wings as a shield against Yang's semblance empowered attack. It then retaliated by suddenly opening its wings forcefully, knocking Yang back only for the girl to use her gauntlets to blast herself back at it in mid-flight.

The Grimm didn't see it coming and Jeanne took some small amount of joy as Yang kneed it in the underside of its… beak? Mouth? Whatever, the point was, Yang hit it!

Still, as much as it had seemed to hurt it, it didn't put much of a visible dent on the Grimm and it swung its head forward to try headbutting Yang. And there was no way for the girl to dodge.

"Pyrrha, grab her!" Jeanne found herself yelling out instinctively.

And just as suddenly as she yelled this out, Pyrrha had responded, using her semblance to grab hold of Yang by Ember Celica and pull her away from the Grimm before the hit connected.

Now Jeanne started to run forward, unable to resist letting out a battle cry as she circled around the Grimm. She jumped as quickly as she could towards its back and slashed at it with Crocea Mors.

As she did so, she immediately regretted it.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as the Grimm began to turn around, ready to backhand her away. With her in mid-attack, there was no way she'd be able to avoid taking the hit and suffering significant damage. Realizing this, she couldn't help but wish for Pyrrha to throw her shield or something to distract it, preferably to strike the thing in its throat-.

And the instant this thought, all-consuming as it was, occurred… something happened.

Deep within herself, Jeanne felt something akin to a spark ignite. A sudden pulse then originated from within her and she could literally feel this pulse reach out to Pyrrha before returning to her.

And then that very thought she'd just had took place in reality.

It was so out of the blue that even in mid-attack, Jeanne found her focus now completely on this rather than on the Grimm. Pyrrha, having been in the process of charging at the Grimm, suddenly stopped what she was doing to throw her shield right at the Grimm, impacting against its throat.

The Grimm let out a wheeze and staggered, its raised fist lowering. Time finally seemed to assert itself normally at this point as Jeanne's attack went through, cutting into its back where the right wing connected.

The Grimm now howled shrilly, still wheezing from the throat hit and Jeanne's eyes widened as she saw her sword cut into the root of the wing. Seeing this opportunity, she ceased it with a vengeance and pushed forward, putting all of her body weight into the push.

And sure enough, her sword finally cut through the wing. It fell to the ground with a wet thud and began to dissipate.

As the Grimm now stumbled forward, lashing out at the air in pain, Jeanne could only land and look at Pyrrha in shock, a look that her friend/teammate returned in equal measure.

Just what had that been right now? Surely, it could not have been some coincidence. One second, she'd so desperately thought one thing and the next, it had taken place!

And that weird and overpowering feeling that had occurred during it… could it be…? Was this perhaps her semblance?!

After all this time, it was finally manifesting?

So many emotions and thoughts now began to flood the girl that it was honestly overwhelming. And just as this happened, Jeanne felt that odd pulsing sensation again and she could see Pyrrha and this time Yang as well all but stumble, as if they too were impacted by something.

The three of them then looked at each other in growing surprise at whatever was occurring. Were it not for the Grimm now regaining its composure and nearly hitting Jeanne with a missed swipe of its claws, the nearly struck blonde probably would've continued to stand there like an idiot.

But with her focus now back on the more important and immediate matter at hand, she frantically tried to back away as the Grimm now clearly came gunning for her.

"Oh… no!" Jeanne yelled, the rocky and uneven ground beneath her making it hard to backpedal fast enough. Her worry triggered yet another pulse and she could feel it hit her friends in equal measure.

And just like a moment ago, they both seemed to almost instinctively respond to her current and foremost thought.

Namely, to get the Grimm's immediate attention off her.

Yang jumped from behind the Grimm and, using Ember Celica to give herself a bit of a boost, dropkicked it in the back of its right knee. Pyrrha used her semblance to manipulate her shield once more and have it strike the creature against the side of its face before rebound and hit it in the back of its other knee before returning to her.

It fell forward, its outstretched arms missing Jeanne by inches.

But it was quick to respond, flapping its left wing in an attempt to raise itself up off the ground, but with its right wing gone, it only succeeded in flipping itself over.

It let out a sound that may have been one of surprise and it smashed a fist into the ground hard enough to make parts of fly up into the air, making a sort of smokescreen.

Jeanne made it a point to back up a bit more and she saw her friends do the same. She watched then as Yang promptly fired a round into the smokescreen a second later, resulting in… nothing. There was only the sound of the shot hitting earth and nothing more.

It put the confused blonde on edge. After all, she'd just cut off one of the Grimm's wings, so flying was surely out of the question for it.

So just how could it have taken off so quickly and where to? She couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary around them.

At least not for a few more seconds.

It was slight, but she and the others could begin to hear the sounds of footsteps approaching them from somewhere to the east of them and they all turned to see what it was.

But even as the sounds got closer, they saw nothing of note.

Until there was a faint glimmer of a muzzle peeking out from in between two thin trees. The way the light hit the muzzle revealed the white and all too familiar mask of the gun's wielder and immediately sent Jeanne into an even greater panic.

"White Fang!"

She hardly got a chance to say or do anything more when more than one bullet was fired in her direction.

* * *

Another Grimm, a Boarbatusk to be specific, collapsed and began to dissipate, the telltale sign that it was dead.

And its killer, Emerald, let out a ragged breath.

This one must have been like the hundredth or so Grimm she's killed within the past half hour or so. The same could be said for Mercury who, due to being an assassin and thus the better fighter of the two, was out somewhere deeper in the surrounding area dealing with any other Grimm that got a little too close to their current hideout.

And there in her wheelchair, Cinder sat. Positioned just several yards behind Emerald, the raven haired woman was granted a pretty good view of the area in front of her, which allowed her to utilize the partial maiden power she still possessed to instantly roast any Grimm that Emerald was unable to get to in time.

The woman did so with a heavy and uncertain heart, however.

Following their escape from Beacon, the three of them had headed southwest, following along the coast until they were perhaps no more than several dozen miles away from the border between the kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo. There, they had a safehouse, but one that had never been used before and therefore had ultimately ended up looking quite shoddy upon their arrival.

Nonetheless, they'd made it into a temporary home of sorts, at least until she was in better shape. The safehouse was essentially a bunker, built from the toughest stone made around these parts within a large hill near the ocean. The area's unusual blend of vibrant plant life and sand due to its proximity to the beach and the kingdoms allowed for the bunker to be further hidden by a blend of shrubbery and piles of sand.

But this hadn't stopped the Grimm from roaming the area outside… nor did it stop them from eventually realizing that something was off about the hill they kept passing by.

So in order to prevent the Grimm from destroying the bunker, they all had to reluctantly head outside and ward them off.

In doing so, though, they only succeeded in making themselves targets and Grimms of all kinds in the area had been coming at them for a while now.

"Is this all I was worth to you?" Cinder muttered, gripping the wheelchair's armrests tightly.

She liked to think she knew her master quite well and therefore knew that Salem wouldn't tolerate failure very well… but still, to see her master callously allow or perhaps even outright direct the Grimm to target her and her two loyal lackeys broke her heart on a level she didn't know she'd possessed.

First, she'd been abandoned by her father when he'd died and then left to suffer at her stepmother's and stepsisters' cruelty. And now she'd been abandoned by the one other person she'd considered genuinely important in her life.

An emotion that could perhaps be considered anguish began to well up inside her, undoubtedly serving as a beacon for any Grimm still roaming the area.

Sure enough, the fighting off somewhere in the distance had picked up, the sound of gunfire from Mercury's cybernetic legs and the dark wails of the Grimm growing more intense.

For now, the area within her line of sight was empty and this gave her the time to try wrapping her head around everything.

"Cinder…" Emerald began, practically whispering her name. "You got to stay calm! Or else they're just keep coming!"

Never before had Cinder seen the thief shoot her such a pleading look. She supposed she can't hold it against her given the sheer number of Grimm they'd already taken down. It was a genuine miracle they all haven't died just yet, now that she thought of it – plenty of Grimm had had the opportunity to deliver severe injuries to both Emerald and herself thanks to some genuinely surprising tactics and sheer numbers.

Yet they haven't. Even now, the damage they've actually suffered was fairly minimal though they were certainly getting worn out. She honestly couldn't imagine how exhausted Mercury must be feeling right now since he was the vanguard for them.

Was this perhaps a sign of Salem showing her some measure of pity by sending out the Grimm in small droves at a time? Or was Salem merely taking her time toying with them, wearing them down physically and psychologically until she was bored enough to finally bother finishing them off? Both possibilities were equally likely.

And nonetheless, both possibilities equally hurt her.

To be taken in and ultimately discarded here of all places, alone with only two others to accompany her.

All this time, she'd wanted to be someone and now it looks like she and her two companions were going to end up dying alone and unknown.

The irony was yet another bullet to her heart and signaled the next wave of Grimm.

When she began to aid Emerald once more with her flames, it was with tears in her eyes.

* * *

Salem hummed as she finally exited her castle. She took her time traveling up a nearby cliff and upon reaching the top, she walked over to the furthest part of it and looked down.

The cliff was quite tall and steep. Were she to fall off, she'd be falling a good hundred feet or so before hitting the ground.

But she worried not one bit for this.

Instead she reveled in how things were going elsewhere.

She'd been a little annoyed when humanity had begun to fight back in earnest, but this annoyance had been tempered by pleasant surprise when she discovered that she could project her own aura and with it her voice and semblance through virtually any Grimm of her choosing. It was something she'd discovered when trying to get a better look at the situation in Vale through the Grimms' eyes and it was now a new skill she'd taken the past several minutes attempting to refine.

Perhaps now she could take something akin to an active role now amidst this Trial, if only by supporting the Grimm with her semblance through them.

Maybe, that is – as things currently stood, it'd only be a matter of time before her precious creatures of darkness, born from the darkness of humanity, overwhelmed the kingdoms. So unless something changes drastically, she sees no need to hurry along and get too involved just yet.

Oh sure, Jaune Arc suddenly activating his semblance had been a surprise and the power she'd felt from him in that moment before he sped off was unlike anything she's ever personally felt before… but it wasn't something that had her worried. After all, he clearly wasn't ready to use his semblance, whatever it may be, just yet judging by the damage merely activating it partially had done to his body already. Not to mention he obviously doesn't have much control over the vast power increase it gave him.

Her fellow Apostle will likely kill himself well before he's able to change the tides of this Trial. And if that were to occur, his death that is, then the Power would be unable to do much of anything too. While it could certainly kill a great number of Grimm, it'd only be a matter of time before more are formed and while it could come and kill her, she believes she's figured out a way now to resolve the significant power difference between them. Why, perhaps she could even overpower it if she did it right!

This was a thought or more along the lines of a theory born from what she'd done to Adam Taurus, but one she admittedly wasn't all that eager to try on herself, if only because the Power wouldn't be able to risk killing her anyway lest it wished for the Grimm to go berserk with no way of stopping them.

In any case, Salem could confidently say she's thought of measures to account for all other factors in this Trial and took more than a bit of joy in that.

It's been a long time coming, but she was certain that humanity wouldn't live to see the end of this Trial. It was enough to make her laugh really, an action that caused the black veins on her arms and face to writhe under her skin.

Perhaps the only downside to this was just how barren her land looked, having ordered almost all the Grimm here to head out well in advance of the Trial starting in order to be outside the kingdom walls in time.

Only a scant few Grimm remained and they were to be her guards. Currently, however, they remained underground, resting and waiting for her call, a call that likely wouldn't come soon given the situation right now.

Or so she'd thought for a moment.

She let out a hum of surprise, even blinking in the process upon sensing something. Much like her fellow Apostle, aura was something she could see, but at the same time it was also something she could simply outright detect, but only when it's actively being channeled into a powerful attack or defense.

Such as semblances, for instance.

And right now, such an instance was occurring.

All around her, there was the feeling of aura in the air and when she bothered looking up, she could detect said aura, appearing to her eyes in a red hue.

And the 'red hue' split open and a blade emerged from this opening. It moved like lightning towards her left eye.

Salem dodged it casually by tilting her head to the side.

That was when another opening appeared behind her and a high caliber bullet was fired directly at the small of her back.

Due to just how close it was to her, dodging it completely would've been impossible. But through use of her semblance, she reduced the bullet to nothing more than harmless atoms before it even touched the back of her clothes.

The red hues around her disappeared and then formed several meters behind her. With a humph, she turned around to see what exactly this was.

The red hue opened up, forming what could only be called a portal and out from it, three individuals stepped out and stepped forward.

Salem, despite herself, couldn't help but blink at who they were.

"Man, can't believe you two missed! Don't know if that means you're not as sharp as you say you are or if she's really that big a threat," spoke the one to the left, a blonde and muscular man.

The one in the middle, another guy, she recognized from all that time Cinder spent talking about her plan – Qrow Branwan. "That's rich coming from the guy whose personal weapon got destroyed."

"H-Hey, it was an accident! One of the Dust chambers in my gauntlets short-circuited and blew them up during maintainence!"

The one on the right, a woman with raven black hair and red eyes, made a sound that could've been a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "I see you haven't changed much still over all these years, Tai."

"…Could say the same about you, Raven," spoke the blond man. He sounded wistful.

"Well lookie here, you two," spoke Qrow next. He hefted his weapon, a sword, and pointed it at her. "She was kind enough to let us quip amongst ourselves."

Salem merely stared at them, her emotional state bordering on mild bemusement. "Well, I must say can you really fault me? Visitors out here aren't quite common."

"Ha, with a place like this, can't say I blame anyone for not wanting to even look at it, let alone come here," said Qrow.

"Enough talk," the one named Raven then said. She sheathed her blade and Salem watched as the large sheath she held it in rotated, revealing different forms of Dust. The woman huffed. "Save the quips for afterwards."

"Hey, she's willing to reply, so why not? After all… it might as well the end of the world. Got to indulge ourselves a bit, right?" Qrow joked. But then his expression changed to one much more serious. His sword then began to transform and a second later, a scythe was in its place. "But you do got a point, sis. She doesn't look like that much of a conversationalist. Say Tai, think you'll be good going into this barehanded?"

The blond man cracked his knuckles. "Considering my daughters and the rest of Remnant are at risk here? Even if I was limbless, I'd be wanting a crack at her."

The response this Tai gave was enough to actually make Salem laugh. "My my, so eager to rush to death, I see. I must admit, I'm more than a little surprised by this attack – I'd have thought that foolish man to understand the dangers with confronting me. Seems I was mistaken."

"Oh, we know damn well what's going on – Oz made sure to fill us in," Qrow said.

Tai took up a combative stance just as Raven drew her blade, its crimson red blade now a crackling yellow. "And just because killing you isn't in the picture, it doesn't mean we can't soften you up first," spoke the blond man.

Salem let out a snort. She'd figured as much by now. Still, she supposed it was somewhat nice to have confirmation. "I believe you'll find me to be just a bit too tough for you three to even pull off that much. Assuming, of course, you can even get to me first."

"Oh? We'll see about that," now spoke Raven, being the first to start moving forward.

"Yes, my dear… I suppose we will." Salem's eyes glowed ever more darkly as she said those words, calling out to her slumbering guards.

It was almost funny how she'd been thinking of them just a moment ago. Not that she was complaining though.

In response to her mental call, the ground began to shake violently and with this, her three would-be attackers ceased what they were about to do in favor of simply retaining their balance.

The ground by her castle, well away from this cliff, cracked and then shattered, collapsing into the pit below it as merely _one_ of her guards rose up.

Modeled after one of the most fearsome creatures from bedtime stories, the Wyvern rose from its sleeping place, its dragon-like body so massive in size that as it flapped its wings and took flight, its shadow engulfed the entire cliff even though it was still by the castle.

It all but glided over, landing just tens of meters behind her three foes and let loose a roar so ferocious that even Salem had to plant herself firmly to keep from being blown back.

Nonetheless, she smiled as she sensed the three's shock and fear.

"Now then, ready to start our 'little' fight?"

With the snap of her fingers, her Wyvern went on the attack.

* * *

 **Alright, that about finishes up this chapter! 28 pages! Wasn't really expecting it to be this long, ha ha ha.**

 **Now with this chapter written, I can say that the truly final battle may not quite be as close as I'd thought. Which it to say that this fic may be just a few chapters longer than I'd originally estimated. To what extent, I can't say anymore, but very likely around several more chapters. Wouldn't surprise me if I end up finishing this chapter just a bit past the 50th one depending on how I continue to divide up the remaining content.**

 **Ultimately though, I don't want to drag out this final arc too much lest it start losing its impact on you guys. Whether or not I succeed though will be up to me! In any case, I hope you will continue to enjoy what else is coming!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	45. Chapter 45

Saw Justice League recently and I have to say I'm rather split – on the one hand, my fanboy side loved it. On the other hand, my more critical side is nitpicking all the flaws in it. But I rest a bit more assured knowing Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon weren't directly responsible for these flaws. Rather it was Warner Bros' executives from what I understand. Seriously, while sometimes executive decisions can have a positive impact, I feel theirs are far from this case. Hopefully for the next few DCEU films, they'll learn to leave things alone and let the directors do things their way!

Heh, well other than that, not too much to be said. Things in my life are more or less the same for now, still just trying to get a new job and all. And watching movies and new animes, of course!

So without further ado, time for the chapter!

Quick P.S. Infinity War trailer was EPIC! And so was Heaven's Feel!

Chapter 45

Back when he was just a kid, even Qrow had had dreams of growing up to be something more than just another member of a bandit tribe. He too had envisioned himself as a hero, going around fighting villains and saving people, especially if it meant hooking up with a princess.

While the first few years with the tribe had stomped out those dreams pretty quickly, it hadn't stopped him back then from wondering how it'd be like to fight a dragon or some shit for a bombshell of a princess' sake.

To think that here and now in his adult life, he'd actually be going up against one. And with no princess around either.

"Shit, talk about bad luck…!" he muttered as he dodged.

The Wyvern had nearly stomped on him and it was only thanks to a combination of his own reflexes and semblance that he'd been able to dodge at the last possible second. For something so damned big, it was scary fast.

Off to the side somewhere, he could see Raven and Tai circling around the massive Grimm. But whereas Tai immediately began to run up to the dragon based Grimm from behind, he could scarcely see his sister running forward still.

Towards the source of all this chaos: Salem.

And he was just far enough away to catch a brief glimpse of the woman in question, sneering darkly even as Raven rapidly approached her.

"Raven! The hell you doing?!" he yelled as the Wyvern continued to stomp forward in an attempt to crush him, forcing him to move further and further back.

"Ending this!" she called back.

"Are you stu-?!" He didn't get to finish as the Grimm then spun and swung its tail, forcing him to hastily leap along with Tai, the Grimm having done a full 360. But they both hadn't been fast enough, just the upper part of the massive appendage clipping them along the side.

Even though they'd blocked as best as they could, it still sent them both flying a good dozen meters at bullet-like speeds.

And Qrow, dazed, could only watch as Raven finally launched an attack at Salem, the part of his mind that was still functioning right now feeling horrified. While he highly doubted it'd be that easy to take the woman down, killing her would only turn out to be bad for everyone involved right now. Did Raven not recall him telling her that?!

But just as Raven drew her blade at lightning speed, the very air seemed to ripple for an instant and the next thing Qrow knew as he finally landed was that his twin sis suddenly halted her attacked and dodged to the side as a fucking spike materialized out of thin air!

The dragon based Grimm forgotten about for a second, Qrow's jaw hung open in shock as more spikes formed seemingly out of the air and nearly impaled Raven, the woman doing all she can merely to dodge them while moving ever further away from Salem, who had yet to even move a single muscle.

"Did you really think it'd be that easy? I'm feeling disappointed here," Salem then said, her voice carrying far enough for Qrow to hear.

He gritted his teeth. "Figures," he muttered.

The Wyvern's shadow loomed over him as it approached from the sky, having taken flight and now it promptly ceased doing so in an attempt to smash him under its own body.

He didn't have enough time to properly dodge, so he opted to try shielding himself with his sword. But just as he began to do so, Tai suddenly came from his right and tackled him hard.

Together the two went tumbling along the ground, but it got them clear of the Grimm's body slam, even though the impact still sent them flying through the air.

But they managed to land on their feet and eye the Grimm together. "Well, this is off to a bad start," quipped Tai.

"Sure hope you're regretting messing up your weapons," Qrow said.

"Like you wouldn't believe…. Looks like Raven is still intending to go for Salem." Tai nodded in the woman's direction and sure enough, when Qrow looked, he saw his sister once again going close for the supposed kill, albeit noticeably more cautiously this time.

The dragon-based Grimm turned and started stomping its way towards them, roaring so loudly that it felt like their eardrums were about to pop.

Qrow and Tai managed to remain levelheaded, however, in the face of this. "Guess that leaves this thing to us. Shit, sure hope Raven has some plan here because whatever plans I was thinking of got thrown out the window when this thing showed up."

"I'm sure I can hurt it pretty bad with my semblance," Tai said as he now stood, cracking his knuckles. "But you know me – don't have any ranged options to keep it distracted if needed."

"I'll take care of that then. Just don't die out there," Qrow remarked.

"Heh, right back at ya!"

Grinning, Qrow proceeded to switch his weapon to its gun form, exposing its barrel just in time to take a quick shot at the Grimm just as it began to start charging forward at them.

The shot struck it directly in its right eye and while the damage done was light due to the sheer size of the damned thing, it still had the intended effect.

It screeched in pain and its charge faltered ever so slightly, slowing enough for Tai to dash up to it without trouble. But then it seemed to sense him coming just as Tai leapt up at it and it responded by trying to kick him away with its left foot.

Qrow, now beginning to circle around it, took another shot and got it in its other eye, forcing it to slightly stumble from the surprise of it.

This slowed down the attack just enough for Tai to properly react to it this time, the man practically spinning in midair. He placed both hands up against the Wyvern's massive foot in mid-attack and redirected it so that the now awkward blow missed him.

In doing so, Tai's aura flared up, glowing a magnificent yellow as his semblance activated. He then launched a punch at the Grimm's exposed gut -.

-And Qrow watched as the blow caused the Grimm to go skidding back several dozen yards.

"What?!" he heard Salem yell in surprise even as she kept his sister at bay with those same spikes.

Qrow merely grinned.

Yang took after her old man in a bunch of ways – the blond hair and eyes, the general color scheme of their outfits, fighting styles for the most part and even their semblances as well. However, Tai's worked a bit differently from Yang's.

Yang had to take a blow in order for her aura to grow stronger and power up her attacks. But Tai? All he had to do was deflect attacks in order for him to get the same boost. Not only that, but he could actually _absorb_ the strength and kinetic energy behind incoming attacks to grant himself another massive boost in power at the same time. Two boosts for the price of one, in other words. The only drawback was that he had to actually deflect blows in order to absorb their power, not tank them. And he needed to use his hands to do so.

This made Tai a much more defensive and even evasive fighter than Yang despite teaching her a good portion of his moves.

But if anyone thought that meant he wasn't much of an aggressive person, then they were in for a surprise.

Just like the Grimm now was.

Qrow watched as Tai now dashed forward along the ground, his aura still flaring as his semblance still took effect. The power boost he'd received also boosted his speed a fair bit and he reached the Wyvern in just a millisecond.

Jumping up, he delivered an uppercut right in its massive face, using up the remainder of his boost, Qrow could see, his aura ceasing to flare up.

This was now Qrow's chance to go on the offensive and he too got in close.

The Wyvern was now about to fall onto its back, but just before it could do so, he started to open fire on its wings, hoping to blow holes through them. Unfortunately its toughness extended to the patagium between its finger bones and body, for his shots only barely punctured through it.

Fortunately, when he finally jumped up and switched his weapon to its scythe form, he was able to cut through a portion of the patagium where he'd concentrated his fire, forming a hole nearly twice his own size just in time for the Grimm to finally fall back.

But it clearly wasn't done just yet. It snarled and began to thrash wildly just as he'd been about to land on its stomach. This forced him and Tai to get off of it and move a good distance away to avoid being crushed.

They weren't quite so lucky, however, for it managed to swat them aside with its damaged wing, the sheer force of the wild attack causing their auras to become visible.

They both hit the ground hard, but managed to use the momentum to roll and end up in a semi-crouch. Their auras were still flaring up a bit, but now disappeared.

"Thing hits hard – probably just took off half our auras!" Qrow whined.

Whining wasn't really something a huntsman should be doing, but he didn't think anyone could blame him. Seriously, it ought to be illegal for anything to be able to hit that damned hard.

Another solid hit or two like that and they could kiss their auras goodbye for the time being.

"At least you managed to potentially ground it. With a hole that big, flying shouldn't be an option for it," Tai commented.

"Yay, now it's stuck on the ground with us," Qrow drawled. "What more could I ask for?"

"…Well, we're still more or less on a cliff," Tai noted.

Qrow spared a glance around, realizing that yes they were still on the cliff, just not as close to the edge anymore thanks to the Grimm chasing them back.

Suddenly, he was beginning to get an idea and a quick look to Tai's twinkling eyes told him his pal/brother-in-law had thought the same thing.

The Wyvern was now beginning to get back up, grabbing their attention. Boy oh boy, did it look pissed. But this pleased Qrow; this meant it'd be a bit easier to make it do what they now wanted it do to.

The sounds of fighting between Salem and Raven continued off in the background somewhere. From the sounds of things, Raven was finally able to launch some attacks of her own, but evidently without much success judging by the distinct lack of agonized screaming that usually accompanied fights his sister was involved in.

He sure hoped his twin was ready to dodge, because the little plan he and Tai thought up was going to be just a tad bit of a doozy.

"On three?" he asked his longtime friend as the Wyvern now was fully back on its feet.

"Yep."

"Three!"

The two of them immediately turned and began to run. Just as he did so, Qrow turned and fired off a quick shot to get the Grimm's attention. He sure succeeded in doing so, for it now began to roar and charge after them.

Qrow couldn't help but grin like a loon as the Grimm began to gain on them quickly. But all this did was make him feel oddly elated.

Nothing like a risky maneuver to get the blood pumping, after all. He just hoped it didn't actually get him killed.

* * *

When she'd first started to attack Salem, Raven had anticipated the woman naturally warding her off – no way the leader of the Grimm would be so weak as to fall to the first strike, after all.

That being said, she hadn't quite imagined how the outright demonic looking woman would do so, namely in the form of these spikes forming from the air itself to both act as a defensive and offensive maneuver.

What's more, while they'd merely been simple spikes at first, now they were beginning to change in shape. They even snaked towards her at times, growing in length and number as they tried to impale her.

She'd already gone through a few blades of Dust simply cutting these odd things down, said creations proving to be far tougher and thicker than she'd been expecting.

Looking to the wicked woman, it was to see her ominous red eyes glow for a brief instant.

Then the next thing she knew, just as she continued to back away, she ended up smacking straight into something.

"What?!" was all the bandit tribe leader could say as she suddenly found her back up against a wall. More than that – the 'wall' instantly grew, becoming more akin to a box than anything else, with only the front side left exposed.

Meaning she was exposed.

"I'm beginning to grow just slightly bored with you," Salem commented as she raised her left hand. Her palm was open and she then began to bend her fingers, as if she was trying to grasp something.

Whatever that 'something' was, Raven didn't know or care. What she did care about was the sudden feeling of pain emanating from within her chest. She didn't know what it was, but her survival instincts immediately kicked in and she threw herself up against the back wall hard enough to smash right through it, backflipping until she was several feet away from her previous spot.

A slight glance down to her chest revealed blood slowly seeping through the pitch black material of her dress. With widening eyes, she pulled the front of her dress away from her chest just enough to reveal that the patch of skin just over her heart had been torn away somehow.

Grunting, she now glared at Salem, who returned the glare with a bemused gaze.

"Hmm, you didn't go running as far as I'd thought you would. Perhaps your intuition is greater than I expected it to be. Oh well, doesn't make too much of a difference, I suppose." Salem now began to take just a few steps forward, all but sauntering as if this wasn't a fight. "In any case… it's about time I start taking things just a bit more seriously; the culling of humanity can't be put off for too long, after all."

Salem now glared and the mere sight of her visage all but outright morphing from hatred was enough to make even Raven's blood run cold. So this… this was the leader of the Grimm. The R of former team STRQ had grown up exposed to many difficult and harsh things, had overcome trials that would break weak people… but that gaze Salem now gave her, she felt fear for the first time in many years.

So when Salem raised her hand, ready to snap her fingers, Raven was quick to allow her own fear to spur her onwards.

Quite literally – she couldn't keep dancing backwards forever, after all.

And she was correct to do so, perhaps. For the instant she bolted forward, Salem snapped her fingers together and an explosion of what looked like nothingness occurred just where she'd been standing. The explosion was small in size, with a blast radius of maybe a foot or two, but the sheer amount of power behind it was so great that it nearly sent Raven flying forward.

She kept her footing, however, and continued running towards the Grimm's master, sheathing her odachi and switching its blade to one of red Dust. As she did so, Salem merely stared and stood where she was. And just like before, things seemed to just manifest out of thin air, ranging from spikes to actual weapons such as swords and axes and spears, all of them swinging at her vertically and horizontally and more. The very ground itself then began to rise up haphazardly in small portions, creating pillars and sinkholes meant to stall her.

But Raven, while no official huntress, had all the power and skill of one and it showed as she expertly moved past all of these things, ducking and gracefully sliding past all the manifesting spikes and weapons while cutting through the various pillars that shot out of the ground. The sinkholes she dealt with in the form of small leaps when circling around them proved impossible.

And in a matter of a few milliseconds, she'd crossed the considerable distance between her starting point and Salem, fighting through her own fear enough to gaze upon the Grimm's master with all the rage she could muster.

Spinning, she leapt and swung her blade at top speed, a speed that surpassed even lightning. She aimed directly for Salem's neck and it was with a sense of glee that she watched as the blade neared its target without issue.

Only for the glee to turn to absolute shock when her blade was just an _inch_ away from making contact and the part of it that was going to connect simply _disintegrated_.

Salem merely chuckled and then snapped her fingers, a sound that sent chills down Raven's spine. Sure enough, just like a few seconds ago, the same outright invisible explosion occurred, but it was more than just one – it was at least a dozen, maybe even more. These explosions all occurred directly around Raven's lithe form in midair.

She writhed and actually cried out in pain, her aura working overtime to cushion the blows and paying the price for it. She could feel her own aura depleting almost completely in the process. So great was the pain and surprise of this multitude of explosions that it wasn't until the final one nearly forced her into the ground that she saw Salem finally make a physical move.

She was fast, even faster than her, but Raven was able to see Salem lash out with a palm strike. Unfortunately, just because she saw this coming doesn't mean she was able to properly react in time and so she could only grunt when the palm strike slammed into the very center of her sternum, hitting her so hard that her very bones creaked and threatened to break under the force, her now low aura just barely reducing the damage.

Sent sprawling across the ground, it was an effort to roll and end up kneel on one knee, but she managed to do so after a good several meters.

She weakly glared at the monster of a woman, her mind struggling to comprehend what was going on. The only thing she could be certain of is that the woman must definitely possess a semblance, one that allowed her to do everything she's been doing so far. But as to what limits it possessed, she couldn't even fathom right now.

Raven stiffened when Salem slowly began to raise her hand again, only for the two of them to stop when the rumbling and roaring that was no doubt a result of Qrow's and Tai's battle against that dragon-based Grimm began to get more intense.

And closer.

It was the look of mild surprise on Salem's face that confirmed what she now began to suspect and sure enough, when she turned around, it was to see her twin and former mate running directly towards her and Salem.

With the god damned Grimm chasing right after them.

It roared and the sheer frothing rage behind it could be felt all the way from here, nearly rattling her entire body.

"Qrow?!" She couldn't help but yell her twin's name in a mixture of shock and anger. She had an idea of what he was up to here and she wasn't liking it.

"Raven! Fly!" her brother yelled at her.

And with a sound of fury and disgust, Raven obeyed. Her form immediately shifted to that of an actual raven just as Salem began to focus on her brother and Tai.

Tai managed to dash ahead of Qrow and began to actually counter against the suddenly manifesting spikes and weapons with his fists, outright swatting them aside with increasing ease as his semblance kicked into gear.

It was at this point that the Wyvern seemed to realize its two foes/prey was leading them towards its master and it now began to try stopping itself, with mixed results. It started to skid to a slow stop, but it was obvious that at the rate it was going, it'd be cutting it close.

As for Salem, she seemed to realize this, for she moved back, closer to the cliff's edge as she continued to attack Qrow and Tai, Raven watching this from above as she circle overhead. Were she capable of it, she'd be letting out quite a few 'tsks' right now, seeing how this was going to play out.

At this point, Salem began to utilize the same explosions from a moment ago against the two men, now forcing them to split apart and circle around the Wyvern for cover.

Salem couldn't see what they were up to, but Raven sure did.

Just as they circled back around the still skidding Grimm, Tai pivoted, jumped lightly, and then utilized all the power he'd gained just now from his semblance to punch the very ground, just where the cliff truly began to form.

The sheer power behind his blow was such that the _entire_ cliffside practically exploded and collapsed, the Wyvern roaring as it fell with it. Debris and dust flew everywhere, obscuring the entire area and making it impossible to tell what had happened to Salem. Raven was certain though that the woman had fallen alongside her skidding Grimm.

She watched as Qrow transformed into his own crow form and took flight while Tai turned and fled. However, the latter had been so close to the collapsing cliff that by the time he turned and started to run, he was practically running up pieces of debris that were far too small for him to build up speed.

Mentally sighing, she dived downwards just as Qrow did the same and together the two of them grabbed hold of Tai by his shoulders and flew off with him. Their avian forms may not exactly be suited for combat, but they still retained a good deal of their physical strength in these forms, so they were still able to fly at a decent speed even with Tai held in their clutches.

Didn't make it any less taxing, though. Soon, the two of them strained to keep flying with Tai's much larger frame being a burden on their currently small ones and the two dropped him and resumed their true forms immediately thereafter.

And Raven now made her opinion known. "You… damned… fools!" she managed to say between breathes, motioning to the collapsed cliff that lied just a few dozen meters away from their current spot.

Tai weakly chuckled. "Well, we needed a way to get rid of that Grimm quickly…" he said.

And Qrow followed this up with a huff of his own. "Not like you were doing all that well against the Grimm lady herself, sis. Speaking of which, didn't I say not to try killing her?! Without her, all the Grimm will go completely nuts!"

"Says who?" she all but snarled as she stood. "Your source? What makes you think this source is telling the truth?"

On the one hand, some of the information Qrow had passed onto her and Tai from Ozpin and this unknown source had been most helpful. But at the same time, a lot of it had been hard for her to believe. Call her cynical and distrustful, but unless she saw things for herself, some of what she heard was going to be treated with a grain of salt at best.

"I know how you are, Rav." Qrow glared at her weakly. "But false or not, would it have really been worth the risk you took?!"

She scoffed. "At least I was keeping her busy."

"Yeah, by getting pretty much ragdolled from what little I could see."

"Like you would've done better, brother – she was far more powerful than I'd thought, I'm willing to admit that much."

"…And evidently much more versatile than any of us had thought." It was Tai who said this, the tone of his voice being enough to put a stop to the sibling banter between her and Qrow.

The two of them promptly looked to Tai, only to see him staring in a bit of a stupor at the now demolished cliffside.

When they turned to look at whatever grabbed his attention, it was for the two Branwens to look on with wide eyes as well.

Again, the cliffside had been completely destroyed – absolutely nothing of it remained. The now cleared dust confirmed this.

And yet – something remained.

Or rather, some _one_.

There, standing on a small patch of ground that was no more than a few inches thick that was fucking floating in _midair_ , was none other than Salem herself. The woman's expression was a complicated one, with bemusement and annoyance being the foremost obvious emotions on her face.

The woman took a step forward, her heel about to meet open air… only for a patch of ground to suddenly form out of nothing to act as a platform.

One more step, another patch of earth there to greet her step. Over and over and over again, this repeated until Salem was once more upon actual land, the patches of ground that had formed in the air itself collapsing behind her now.

She continued to trudge onwards, slowly yet surely closing the gap between her and them, all but feeling shellshocked at what they just saw.

Then when the woman was approximately twenty meters away, she finally spoke. "I will admit, that was somewhat impressive," she began. "Despite how much I truly loathe your kind, humanity's ability to band and work together can be grudgingly progressive… but don't think you've made any progress here. We're just barely getting started."

Her eyes glowed and the all too familiar roar of the dragon-based Grimm filled their ears. The very same one that had fallen alongside the cliff now came into view, its now scuffed and partially damaged head just beginning to poke over the land as it appeared to somehow claw its way up the ruined cliffside.

But what froze Raven and her two allies in place was the additional two roars that sounded just like the Wyvern's own.

And sure enough, the ground far off in the distance quickly broke apart to reveal two more Wyverns, both of whom were obviously in peak condition as they began to fly their way over here.

"Now then…" Salem uttered darkly as she began to raise both of her hands. The black veins on them pulsed maliciously.

"Let's see you three try that again," she dared.

* * *

It took a good while, but Tenebrous was finally able to deal with of the Grimm that had swarmed it, its fist punching through the final Nevermore's head.

As said Grimm now dissipated, Tenebrous was able to properly resume its flight, its body showing very little damage from the massive swarm of airborne Grimm. Even then, the little scuffs it did suffer now disappeared as it began to resume its course.

Letting out a sound of mild worry, Tenebrous circle around the city of Vale, surveying how things were going.

And it swiftly came to the conclusion that things weren't going well.

The first perimeter was just barely holding on. Even with the combined might of the Atlas soldiers and many huntsmen there, the sheer number of Grimm combined with some genuinely impressive flanking maneuvers was beginning to overwhelm them quite grievously. It was only thanks to the might of Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, and Bartholomew Oobleck, all three of whom were in the thick of the Grimm horde causing the creatures much disruption that gave the rest some breathing room.

The second perimeter was fairing only marginally better, the fourth and third year students along with other soldiers, huntsmen, and even the police doing their best to take down the increasing number of Grimm that were making their way into the city. Alas, the much larger and stronger Grimm were finally catching up with the rest and it was these that the defenders of the city now had to contend with.

Although it couldn't see that far, it could scarcely make out the combat occurring in Beacon, with only its own ability to see aura providing it such impressive clarity from this distance. The first and second year students along with the remaining faculty were getting lucky so far, only really having to deal with the wave of weaker Grimm that had managed to get that far, but it would only be a matter of time until casualties start to really go up.

Tenebrous mulled over what to do, somewhat at a loss here. As far as it could tell, teams RWBY and JNPR were out there in the forest itself, with aura signatures it didn't recognize surrounding them to some degree or another. Obviously, it had to be the White Fang if only because they were the only ones that would be out in the forest of all places, but still.

However, what had its concern the most for this brief moment was its Apostle.

It certainly could never miss Jaune – the young man's aura so bright and powerful that even from here, it was almost like looking into a second sun.

The fact that Jaune's aura was so vast and noticeable now, however, could only mean one thing.

" **He's begun to activate his semblance…"** Tenebrous found itself muttering.

The Power's worry grew considerably. While Jaune beginning to start activating his semblance in full would definitely prove to be a boon, it'd really only be in the short term until it can be determined whether or not the Apostle's body would actually be able to endure the ascension that would now be occurring.

And there was also the issue of whether or not Jaune could get used to his now growing power in time to be of use. The mere fact that he was so far away from not just Vale, but also Beacon hinted that he was struggling in this respect and it made the god more than a little concerned as to how this would now play out.

But alas, as much as it'd like to go to Jaune and see up close and personal how things were going, the Trial was still very much in full swing and it'd be a fool to continue wasting time like this. Something had to be done or else their ranks would fall and Salem would take advantage of this.

Despite its own still considerable power, it was but one being. Only so much ground, figuratively or literally, can be covered by itself. But with most of the bullheads and additional ships from Atlas still trying to take care of the Nevermores and Gryphons still circling about along with the preoccupation of the ground forces, there wasn't really anyone that could lend it some aid.

In which case, it would be on its own for the moment and again, how much it could do was limited right now… unless it figured out a way to cause a massive disruption…

Ah, yes. That could work, the god supposed.

Flapping its wings, Tenebrous traveled upwards until it began to reach the clouds.

Then it kept on flying higher.

* * *

Blake was just barely able to raise Gambol Shroud in time to deflect the next swing that came her way, preventing the incoming blade from cutting into her side.

The blow was heavy, however, and ended up propelling her through the air as if she weighed nothing at all.

It's more or less been this way the past several minutes, much to her misfortune.

When Adam Taurus, her former ally and more, had initially appeared along with plenty of White Fang troops, she'd been more than just a bit taken aback – she'd been outright stupefied and had immediately paid the price in the form of having more than half her aura taken down with just a few blinding swings of Adam's blade.

Those initial swings had knocked her back towards her friends and the next thing she'd known, Adam and his forces had been upon them all in full and since then they've all been desperately trying simply to survive a few seconds longer with every attack that came their way.

Incidentally, it was those first few strikes that had snapped her out of her shock and had finally gotten the B of team RWBY to properly move.

This didn't mean she was free of any anguish.

"Adam, why?!" she cried just before the man in question loomed over her, kicking her harshly in the gut. She went tumbling along the bumpy ground, just barely aware of all the fighting going on around her.

As she managed to roll to a stop and get back up, she was able just to get a brief glimpse of Weiss and Ren fighting back with all they had, with Weiss even proving to be more than a match for several of the troops that had come with Adam, if only due to her using her glyphs to propel them all away from her.

However, this didn't stop that misshapen Grimm from suddenly flying in out of nowhere and clotheslining her through a nearby boulder, eliciting a cry of agony as the back of her head had met the boulder first.

Further off in the distance, Ren could be seen trying to bring down the three White Fang members that were ganging up on him, but their great bulk made it hard for the much lighter teen to do much damage with just his bare hands and bullets.

"You just don't listen, do you?" Adam growled as he entered her vision, nothing but malice emanating from his sharp features. He was about several feet away from her, a distance either of them could cover in but an instant. The young man opted to open fire upon her with his weapon instead.

Blake, still reeling emotionally from how the situation had turned out, was able to deflect the bullets without too much trouble and then promptly used her semblance to take a hit that would've otherwise probably taken off the rest of her aura as Adam suddenly lunged forward and swung for her neck.

But she knew that Adam was used to her usual tactics, so rather than try to circle around him and attack, she move as far away from him as possible, an action that resulted in one White Fang member to turn and take a potshot at her with a brief burst of automatic fire.

She leapt back again to avoid the bullets, but this left her open to Adam suddenly turning around and lunging at her, his hand reaching out for her.

She couldn't even twist to avoid him when his hand found itself wrapped around her neck, which left her bereft of breath.

"It's been a long time coming for humanity," Adam growled out. "The time has come to finally cleanse Remnant of them and their filth. Simple as that, really – but you just don't get it, do you, Blake? I suppose that's to be expected from a traitor!"

He threw her at a tree and although gasping desperately for oxygen, Blake was able to utilize her ribbon to wrap around the tree instead and finally go on some kind of offensive, shooting at Adam while simultaneously launching herself at him with her blade drawn.

Her former friend sliced apart her shots with utter ease and then swung at her just as she approached. But with the use of her semblance at the last possible second, she was able to take him somewhat by surprise and land a hit on him.

It hadn't been much of a hit, though, her blade just grazing his right shoulder as they both swung. Still, it would've chipped off a decent amount of his aura.

As she landed, she heard him huff in annoyance. They both turned to face one another.

"In fact, traitor might be too good a word for you – trying to be one of those despicable huntresses, attending an academy alongside humans as if you're one of them, being friends with a _Schnee_ of all people," Adam continued to rant. "You're an affront to our race!"

Although it wasn't true at all, to hear such hate and vitriol from him hurt Blake. Nonetheless she responded as best as she could to what mattered. "But Adam, you're wrong!" she all but screamed.

Once upon a time, she too had perhaps hated humans, at least until she realized just how far the White Fang had strayed from their original purpose, at which point she'd done a lot of self-reflection up until she left the organization. It'd only been then, when she'd truly been on her own and had tried to live out a quiet life up until Beacon that she began to see just how hateful and ultimately pointless all of the violence had been.

Violence only begets more violence, with no ultimate resolution in the end.

And that had been the conclusion she'd come to _before_ her 'conversation' with Jaune Arc – and oh, how world-shattering that day had been for her. The young blond man had spoken to her with sincerity that she hadn't been able to disbelieve what he'd told her… and in turn had come to realize how far everyone had fallen over all these centuries.

To think that all of the suffering the 'Faunus' had gone through had essentially been for nothing… it'd hurt her far more than anything else had before.

But now… here was just one microscopic chance to perhaps use this information to do some measure of good.

"All this time, we've done nothing but hurt each other," she began as she stood, dodging to her right just as Adam swung downwards at her. He followed up with a spin and a horizontal slice, but she was able to block the attack with the heavy sheath of her blades. Even as it sent her skidding back, she continued to speak. "But Adam, can't _you_ see? 'Humans' and 'Faunus' had always been one and the same! All this time, whenever we shed blood, it'd never been of one different race or another… it'd been the blood of our all along!"

Adam let out a roar that chilled her to the bones. He was clearly too far gone in his hatred to listen, it'd seem. He sheathed his blade and then immediately drew it several times in such rapid succession that his arms and weapon were little more than a blur to her. It was only because she knew his own moves just as well as he knew hers that she was able to maneuver around each strike, the blade just barely grazing her every time.

Thanks to how much aura she'd lost and how strong the attacks had been, the near grazes resulted in blood being drawn, but she paid it little mind. Compared to the anguish she was feeling inside, physical pain had taken a back seat to her senses.

"Don't try and spew some bullshit at me, Blake!" he yelled as he closed in on her. It would seem his own emotions regarding her were so intense that he clearly preferred to attack her up close.

She supposed she should be somewhat thankful for this, since it meant not having to worry about bullets coming from him.

Still, this wasn't exactly a good thing – Adam, being a bit older than her and having trained for longer as a result, was a much more skilled combatant than she was. Stronger too and his semblance only amplified how much power each of his attacks pack when used.

This was something he now demonstrated to her as the red in his hair and on his clothes lit up, signifying the charging of his semblance.

Blake's eyes went wide, seeing him already about to unleash the energy building up within his blade. Even though the power would be most lacking compared to a full charge, it'd still be more than enough to do her in if it connected.

So she did something that she's always regretted doing: she ran.

Specifically, towards where the others were. If one thing could be said to be different about her now after all these years, it's that she will no longer abandon her friends. She'd done enough of that when she left the White Fang, leaving behind more than just Adam.

"Weiss, Ren, move!" she screamed just as Adam unleashed his strike.

A wave of blood red aura was unleashed upon the world. She could literally feel it coming up from behind her, dying the very area around her the same color as its own energy. The attack itself seemed to howl in rage, grabbing the attention of everyone there, even the Grimm that had been flying around taking pot shots at Weiss and Ren.

This gave the two in question just enough of an opening that, upon hearing Blake's cry, allowed them to obey her plea as quickly as they could manage.

Weiss used her glyph to launch herself into the air and well over the red arc of aura while Ren dashed to the side before throwing himself to the ground.

As for herself, Blake waited until the attack was just about to strike her before performing a high rising backflip that just barely propelled her over the attack.

She heard rather than saw the terrible effect it had on everything else, trees and boulders being obliterated in a virtual instant, with even the grass being blown back so forcefully that the ground ended up looking flat for a solid minute.

But it was the other White Fang troops that occupied Blake's thoughts.

Unlike her and her friends, many of the troops had been too slow in trying to dodge and thus Adam's attack hit them head on. Shrill and blood-curdling screams filled the air for all of a split second before all was silent.

And so it was with a renewed sense of horror that Blake turned to face Adam just as she landed.

Not one had the young man tried to warn his fellow 'Faunus.' Not once did he seem to consider even trying to negate his own attack after launching it. Looking upon him, Blake saw no regret or horror in his visible facial features, merely more anger.

"Adam… you…" Blake tried her damnedest to speak, to tell her former comrade just how far he's fallen, but no words would come. But nonetheless, she tried, if only to spare herself from looking back and seeing up close the devastation Adam had just wrought.

"Just what did you do, you homicidal fool?!" screamed a horrified sounding Weiss, the heiress' voice sounding like it was cracking.

Adam seemed to tilt his head to look at her, Blake now hearing Weiss and Ren come up from behind her, their footsteps slow and cautious.

She could feel the hatred radiating off of Adam as he glared at Weiss. "Doing what was necessary!" he roared. "If they couldn't have dodged something as simple as that, then they clearly weren't ready to be on this righteous mission – they'd have only slowed me down!"

And just like that, whatever dwindling hope she'd retained over getting him to stand down fully died. She'd hoped that perhaps if she explained her earlier words better, then maybe – just _maybe_ – she would've been able to at least stupefy Adam enough to either get him to surrender or at least leave him open to a knock out attack.

But now… that hope, much like her worldview had been scarcely a week or so ago, was now utterly shattered and crushed underfoot as the man took a menacing step forward, weapon still drawn and pointed at Weiss.

"A Schnee of all people… it's scum like you that have driven me to this point!" Adam said.

He was no longer making sense. Or rather, had he ever made sense? Is this it? Is this what blind and uncompromising hatred can do to someone? Blake shivered as she now realized just how far the White Fang had fallen if anyone within it had still been willing to listen to Adam.

"You've done this all on your own – don't be blaming others for your actions!" Weiss now yelled, more enraged than she's ever sounded before. Blake could see Myrtenaster being pointed from her right, the Dust chamber switching to a yellow cartridge.

"Don't lecture me, Schnee…" Adam now growled. "Or else you'll find out firsthand just how oppressed the Faunus have been under your family's thumb!"

Ren now came up from her other side, hefting Stormflower. He'd never been one to engage in banter of any kind, but evidently the carnage Adam had just caused had angered even him enough to do so. "You'll find that hard to do against the three of us," the normally quiet teen uttered in a deathly serious tone.

And it was now, with two of her friends by her side, that Blake was finally able to find the strength to lift her weapons again. Horror and crushed hopes gave way to an anger unlike anything she'd ever known and all of it was directed at the one she'd once called a comrade and perhaps something more.

"We're taking you down, Adam!" she hissed. "Believe it or not, but this'll be for your own good!"

Adam laughed harshly. "Then by all means just try it, _darling._ But you three seem to be forgetting something…" He raised his right hand momentarily and not even a full second later, the misshapen Grimm from before came barreling at the three of them from behind.

Thankfully, all of them were able to dodge just as it tried slash them all to ribbons with simultaneous swipes of its claws. As the three trainees ended up a bit spread out, they all watched the Grimm gracefully turned in midair and landed right beside Adam.

"Those fools may have been useless, but this Grimm certainly isn't. Care to rethink your odds now?" He sneered.

Without another word spoken, Blake stood back up along with Ren and Weiss, their stances far more aggressive than they'd ever been before. Adam sheathed his blade, ready to unleash it once more just as the Grimm beside him took a crouching position, clearly ready to lunge.

But just as all of them were about to make their move – what felt like the entire kingdom was violently rocked.

* * *

With a startled cry, Jeanne went falling to the ground, avoiding an attack from the odd Grimm by pure dumb luck as the ground shook violently.

Frantically rolling to get away from the Grimm, which had avoided falling on its face due to it having leapt by pure chance prior to its attack just now, Jeanne noted that Yang and Pyrrha hadn't been able to stay standing either, the two girls having fallen onto the ground as well.

Mild panic filled her as she saw the Grimm take note of this and go charging for Yang. Once more she felt the same connection from before occur and as if reading her thoughts, Yang was able to deflect the incoming Grimm's stomp by way of punching the very back of its shin just before impact. Combined with the shot she'd fired at the same instant her blow struck, she was able to cause the Grimm a fair bit of pain while also making the attack miss her head by just an inch.

By now, Pyrrha was back up and so was Jeanne. The blonde leader concentrated fiercely, determination filling her and by extension filling Pyrrha as well. Thoughts were transmitted and Pyrrha nodded in acknowledgement before acting on them.

Pyrrha threw Milo in its javelin form at the Grimm's neck, but it reared its entire upper body back to avoid being impaled. At the same time this happened, Jeanne had charged at it from behind, ready to slash at its other wing, but this time it'd been ready for her, turning around throwing a punch.

But it'd been a feint. Having faked an incoming attack, Jeanne instead raised her shield to take the blow just as Pyrrha now came low from behind the Grimm and slamming her shield into the back of its knee. It let out a shrill howl of surprise as it fell to just one knee, only for that howl to morph into one of pain as Milo, being manipulated by Pyrrha's semblance came back from the direction it was thrown in and buried itself into the Grimm's right eye.

Pyrrha then leapt over the creature, yanking her weapon out in the process before it could try pulling it out itself.

She landed beside Jeanne, who'd watched all this in fascination yet with as calculating an eye as was possible for her. During the brief moment where the Grimm seemed to content to remain on one knee with a hand over its damaged eye, Yang had gotten up and fired off several rounds while simultaneously backing up towards them.

"Okay… so just what had that been?" the Y of team RWBY asked as she got close, watching as her shots briefly knocked the Grimm onto its back. She was, of course, referring to the massive shake the entire area had been affected by just now.

"Don't know, but hopefully it didn't signal something bad," Pyrrha muttered.

Jeanne didn't chip in, instead figuring out what was going on with their particular situation right now.

For sure, this was the work of her semblance, which she'd finally seemed to have unlocked. Truly a wondrous occasion to be sure, but now was the issue of figuring out how it worked in order to fully capitalize on it.

So far, she was certain of a handful of things. Firstly, her semblance seemed to be able to establish some sort of… psychic? Emotional?... connection between her and her friends here. Thanks to this connection, it seems as if her thoughts could be transmitted to them in such a way that Yang and Pyrrha had almost instinctively acted on them, at least initially.

However, what seemed more important was that it seemed to transmit her emotions to them as well; when she'd felt panicked, Yang and Pyrrha had appeared to feel pretty panicked themselves. When she'd been angered or worried during a few precious seconds here and there, so too had they, their very actions having changed just enough to reflect this. And when she'd felt determined, resolute and confident in whatever brief tactic came to mind, so too had her friends, both of whom had carried out their movements with far greater efficiency than she'd ever seen them do before.

To her, it seemed as if her own emotional state held just as much if not even more of an impact upon whoever was connected to her than just her own thoughts alone.

This was something that honestly terrified and amazed her. To know that she could have such an effect upon others was terrifying in that her own thoughts and emotions could potentially make them perform far worse than they truly were and in turn potentially cost them dearly. But to this same token… the opposite may very well be true.

…Wait, could it be?

She recalled a time not so long ago when she and her brother had spoken about her growth as a huntress. She'd worried over how she would personally be able to fight alongside her friends in defense of the people if her personal strength and skill were lacking. But then Jaune had told her to not worry so much over that, to instead focus more on leading her team and others to victory. That, as a leader, it'd be up to her to "lead, strategize and keep the morale strong" as Jaune had put it back then in order to see her friends and others through conflict.

She may not exactly be the smartest girl in Beacon, but with this memory suddenly replaying in her mind as the Grimm began to get back up, even she was able to put two and two together.

Could it be…? Was her semblance the very crystallization of these responsibilities? Had Jaune somehow known about this in advance?

So lost in thought was she that it wasn't until Pyrrha gave her a violent shake that she returned to reality, just in time to see Yang charging at the Grimm and engaging it in a brief melee. The blonde brawler ducked and weaved like an expert boxer under its violent swipes before using Ember Celica to help slide her in between its massive legs to get behind it.

But just before she could fully get up and attack it from behind, the Grimm swiped it leg backwards, hitting Yang hard in the gut by what could have been pure luck.

"We need to help her!" Pyrrha said before switching Milo into its rifle form, shooting at the Grimm to grab its attention as it pivoted to fully go after a knocked back Yang.

But while Pyrrha did that, Jeanne looked on almost numbly, her mind working a million miles a minute as it processed everything currently going on along with what she believe was now the truth.

This Grimm was just stupidly tough. Despite their efforts so far, it still had plenty of fight left in it. Not even the severed wing had slowed it down much nor had Pyrrha's stab to its eye, which now looked rather shallow overall as she got a good look at it.

Despite the boon her semblance had been thus far, it wasn't as if it was that much of a game changer.

That is, not yet at least.

"I have a plan!" she suddenly shrieked. Focusing hard, she forced her thoughts and feelings of determination at Yang and was elated to see the girl seemingly recover quickly from the blow from this.

Yang, having been knocked once more to the ground, proceeded to roll back several times while Jeanne advanced forward with Pyrrha. The two partners split up and ran to either side of the Grimm, Jeanne to its right while Pyrrha went to its left.

The two of them then leapt at it from its sides and watched as the Grimm seemed to look between them for an instant before extending both of its arms out to try grabbing them.

However, it didn't see Yang then backflip from a final roll and slam her right fist into the ground, the resulting shockwave causing it to stumble forward.

This led to a reversal of the situation from not even a minute ago, where in this case Jeanne and Pyrrha remained unaffected due to being in mid-leap. And together the two of them struck at their real target -.

-Its other wing.

Two simultaneous slices severed it cleanly off and caused the Grimm to roar in shock and pain once more, before the two of them managed to then wrap themselves around its thick neck with both arms. This would've been a hard maneuver to do given their shields, but just before doing so, Jeanne had used her semblance to communicate to Pyrrha to levitate their shields with her semblance.

Their combined body weight did nothing to the Grimm, however, even as it was still in the process of stumbling. As much as they pulled back on its neck, it merely went from roaring to grunting. But that was when Yang came charging in, using her own weapon to drastically accelerate her speed by shooting behind her and she went smashing into the front of the Grimm just as Jeanne and Pyrrha gave one final yank.

The result was the Grimm being flipped backwards through the air, the three girls holding on tightly before all but shoving it into the ground just as they were about to hit it.

The impact certainly dazed the Grimm and all three of the girls weren't spared from this either. However, they weren't so out of it to not get back up swiftly.

And when Jeanne took off running, Yang and Pyrrha were quick to follow, the latter hastily using her semblance to bring back their shields in the process.

Behind them, the Grimm slowly began to stir and get up.

"Where are we going?!" Yang all but yelled as she kept pace with Jeanne.

Jeanne couldn't help but smile hopefully. It seems like her semblances doesn't completely transfer every thought she has, so there was some measure of joy for her to find in saying it aloud. "Back to Beacon!" she said.

"What, why?!" Pyrrha now asked as she caught up, giving back Jeanne her shield.

"What about Ruby and the others?!" Yang then asked, her concern more than apparent.

"I think I have a plan that could help them all out!" Jeanne said in response to both questions.

Well, she hoped so. Otherwise this hasty retreat would have been for nothing.

But alas, with the way her semblance appeared to work, she didn't dare let any negative emotion overwhelm her.

To be a leader was to lead, to strategize, and keep the morale as strong as can be. And by god, was she going to live up to these responsibilities.

Or else others might die for her trying.

* * *

Jaune was nearly keeling over, his entire body writhing even when he was otherwise completely still.

He'd finally managed to halt his extreme movement after ending up plowing through an entire mountain range, but alas as soon as he did so, he found moving back to be nigh-impossible right now.

No matter how he tried, his body seemed to be stubbornly resisting his commands to move, too immobilized by unrelenting agony to do much of anything.

A sound that was little more than a quiet groan escaped his throat. To say his body was hurting all over would definitely be understatement – it'd actually be more appropriate to say that it felt like he was wearing an extremely constraining outfit, one that threatened to suffocate him to death. Only in this case the 'constraining outfit' was his own damned body, it felt like.

His skin seemed to crack. His blood boiled. Muscles continued to tear and bones continue to break. Amazingly, it seemed like all this damage hadn't been the result of slamming through mountains, but rather the result of his own aura, which had simultaneously empowered him enough to endure said mountain tunneling and was now all but ripping him apart.

Activating his semblance truly had been a risky move, but it'd been needed. And it still was needed.

As much as his body seemed to be disobeying him right now, he simply didn't have the time to be writhing like this.

He absolutely had to move.

So when he willed his body to move, it was with a determination far greater than ever before. And in response, his fingers clenched together into fists.

Good, some progress.

So he tried again. This time, his body began to slowly stand up.

His very will, being sharpened to a point by all the pain and thoughts he had, was now reaching its peak and in response, he stood up much more quickly now.

He now stared in the direction that he'd come from – or so he hoped. His own aura was now so intense that it even began to affect his own Aura Vision, all but blinding himself with a light so bright that it took a moment for some small part of his mind to randomly realize that his own aura was light blue in color, merely so bright that it passes as pure white at a first glance.

Despite this predicament, another part of him felt like it was being pulled towards something and he instinctively recognized it as his sister somehow. And it put a small yet very strained smile on his face.

Seems like his sister has managed to awaken her semblance. That was great.

And also went to show that he too had to show his stuff now.

Taking up the starting stance of a sprinter, Jaune tried to zero in on this pulling sensation while also trying to be as aware as possible of his own growing strength. He didn't want to overshoot this time.

A split second later, he then kicked off the ground – and immediately, it felt as if the entire world passed him by.

In spite of the pain, simply by moving, he now felt completely weightless, ethereal even. The familiar colors of aura from many people came into view not even a hundredth of a millisecond after he moved and he immediately tried to brake.

Much like the first time, he wasn't too successful… but at the same time, he was certainly more successful than the first time at least.

Sounds now came to him, the roaring of Grimm, gunfire and weapons being swung, people screaming in indignant rage or fear. Seems like he'd once again overshot and ended up somewhere in Vale. Judging by the auras he can now make out a bit, it seems he was somewhere close to the first perimeter.

Seems like Tenebrous was out there too, for whatever reason. But in any case, Jaune was happy to feel his friend's presence out there among the first perimeter. It meant that the Power has likely already dealt with most of the White Fang within the city and was now aiding the others, though how exactly that was going, he could only guess at since even his own 'sight' was having a hard time keeping up with all the chaos.

He'd better try to get back to Beacon now. He felt a little worried he may overshoot again as he turned around to do so, but third time was usually the charm, right?

But just as he began to do so, literally digging his heels into the ground – Jaune paused.

He sensed something suddenly coming. It was enough to literally make him freeze, the pain his body was going through seemingly vanishing to his senses as he instead focused upon this.

Whatever it was, it was coming from there where the horde of Grimm was mainly coming from. Just what could it even b-?

No. No way. Could it really be…?

"Is she coming…?" he whispered.

* * *

Tenebrous couldn't help but feel somewhat proud of itself. It'd flown up far into the sky, nearly completely into orbit before finally turning back around and divebombing all the way back here, to where the horde was coming from.

It'd slammed into the very middle of the horde with enough momentum and power to rock the entire city and the surrounding areas for dozens of miles.

The resulting attack had outright obliterated all of the Grimm that had been at ground zero. Even the Nevermores and Gryphons that had been flying overhead hadn't been spared. Many of the Grimm outside the immediate crash area had been slain as well while many others had been blown away in all directions, its crash having caused the horde's rough formation untold chaos.

Granted, the knockdown applied to everyone else as well, but it could tell that many if not all of the soldiers and huntsmen here and within the city were already back on their feet, taking advantage of the opportunity it had provided them.

And it took advantage as well, rushing at full speed through the thicker part of the horde and tearing them all apart with its bare fists. It made sure to not get too close to the remaining members of the first perimeter lest they mistake it as being on the horde's side and try to take it down; that'd only cause much unneeded confusion and trouble, even with Glynda Goodwitch there to attest for its true loyalties.

However, whatever concerns the god had quickly ceased to be when it sensed a certain something.

Or rather, a certain someone.

No, it couldn't possibly be… why here of all times and places?

Tenebrous turned around, facing the city. It took note of the fact that all of the remaining Grimm likewise seemed surprise, many slowing in their strides to turn and look as well.

It could not fault them doing so… for their master seemed to be coming.

* * *

Salem had found herself initially bemused by these three pests' efforts to assault her, but bemusement had given way to mild annoyance after they'd collapsed the cliff and sent one of her beloved Wyverns falling down with it. Even though said Grimm was still very much alive, the damage done to its wing would prevent it from flying again unless she healed it, time she didn't have to due to these three having likely been planning to capitalize on it.

But she'd had her other Wyverns to call on and they'd responded to her call, of course. However, that was when things had taken an even more surprising turn.

Rather than turn tail and flee at the sight of the swiftly approaching Wyverns, the three of them seemed to have had a very quick, frantic and even angry conversation between them that she hadn't been able to hear due to the summoned Grimm roaring at that exact moment.

Then the next thing she'd known, all three had rushed at her, having then forced her to retaliate personally.

But rather than attempt to attack her directly, they'd defended against the explosions she'd caused – she used her semblance to make matter in occupied spaces explode – and had managed to get close enough for her to warrant putting up a barrier of sorts.

But then that had been when the oddity happened.

The red eyed woman had leapt over and slashed at the spot behind her while the red eyed man – Qrow, Ozpin's little personal soldier – had suddenly transformed into a crow that had then somehow managed to loosen up a bunch of feathers in which to blind her.

The sheer bizarreness of this had taken her off guard just enough for the blond man to finally land an actual attack on her – a violent and desperate shoulder charge that had knocked the wind right out of her…

…In addition to knocking her back into a red portal that definitely hadn't been there before.

An odd sense of vertigo had filled her upon falling into the portal and by the time she shook it off and attempted to see if she could somehow reverse her course, her new journey came to an end just as abruptly as it had started.

She fell from the sky a good several feet, causing her to stare at the incoming ground in surprise before she gracefully spun and landed on her feet.

She let out a growl now.

"That… had been most unexpected," she muttered to herself.

And she had no one to blame but herself, really. Fighting had never really been her thing, even after she'd become what she is today. Although she was more than aware of certain concepts upon the battlefield, it was only in an intellectual sense, for the number of battles she's actually been in could be counted on both hands. As such, she lacked the experience needed to properly react when encountering such sudden and weird developments.

This was perhaps the one true downside to having secluded herself for all this time, having trained in using her new abilities, but not actually doing anything to truly test her own personal skills.

Alas…

Best to figure out just where exactly she was.

It certainly didn't take her long to do so, especially considering she was surrounded by a plethora of Grimm, all of whom instinctively drew close to her and attempted to shield her from any potential threat.

But she hardly paid this collective action any mind. Rather, she paid attention to the information she was now receiving from the Grimm using her connection to them.

It was unbelievable – she was now just outside of _Vale._ The first perimeter the humans had put up was literally within sight – and she was within _theirs_ , if the sudden standstill all the combatants now entered was anything to go by.

But what was more…

She slowly turned around, commanding two Ursas that had moved to protect her back to lower their heads bit. And as they did so, it was to the sight of the Power now approaching her on foot.

And it certainly didn't look like it was going to be chatting with her.

* * *

"Qrow, you better hope that had worked," Raven grumbled.

Qrow, now back in his human form, couldn't help but grin. "Well, considering we'd managed to actually knock her into one of your portals, I'd say it did so far."

When those other Wyverns had started to fly towards them, he'd used their roars to cover up what had to be the most frantic and rushed 'discussion' he'd ever had with his sis and Tai.

The plan he'd proposed and ultimately forced into action had been brutally simple: to take Salem well away from here, where she had plenty of massive and powerful Grimm to call on, to somewhere where she'd hopefully be much more manageable.

That was where Raven's semblance came very much in handy. For in addition to being able to make bonds with people and make portals that can lead her straight to them, she could also open up portals to locations she's personally been to before, even able to open up these portals pretty much wherever she chooses within these visited areas.

And Qrow had all but made Raven open up the portal to the area outside the city of Vale, where he knew for a fact many soldiers and huntsmen would be. Combined with any and all other reinforcements that should hopefully be available, surely even Salem would be unable to fight off that many even with the Grimm there now at her beck and call.

Especially if Oz himself decided to enter the fray. Hell, even grumpy ol' James getting personally involved would be pretty awesome.

As for how well they'd managed to pull off this plan, well, Qrow had honestly been banking on quite a bit here. Although he didn't know the fully story from Oz and kind of doubted he ever will, Oz had told him a bit of his past with Salem and from this had surmised that the woman, for all her power, likely wasn't that skilled of a combatant, meaning taking off her guard with certain things could be possible.

And to his joy, that had been the case. Never before had he envisioned it being easy to take what amounted to an evil overlord off guard like that. But he sure wasn't complaining.

Especially when the dragon-based Grimm, upon seeing what had happened to their master just now, suddenly roared in surprise before actually changing course, continuing to fly way above the three of them and head off in search of Salem.

"Well, at least that spared us some trouble," Tai commented as he watched alongside Raven and Qrow as the Wyverns flew off into the distance, with even the one they'd fought following after on foot. "But lack of skill aside, do you really think numbers alone will be enough to take her down?"

To Qrow's surprise, Raven nodded in agreement. "I must admit, whatever her semblance was, it was more than enough to keep me back at almost all times and that was while toying with me. Had she actually taken me seriously, I doubt even my skill would've been enough to do much of anything against her."

"Fair point," the scythe wielder admitted. His eyes then narrowed as he hefted up his weapon. "So how about we also go join the party? Our job's nowhere near done just yet, ya know?"

Without another word spoken between the three former teammates, Raven created another portal for them to use.

And off they went – to what may well be the battle that decided how this Trial would ultimately go.

* * *

 **Not going to lie, figuring out exactly when I wanted Salem to end up in Vale had been pretty difficult. Mainly because a part of me feared dragging it on too long before doing so while another part of me worried that this may have been rushed too much.**

 **In any case, hope this is one development that pleases you guys!**

 **Well, that said, not too much else to say since I believe the reasons why this was the case have been explained as succinctly as possible in the end there.**

 **For those of you curious about Ruby's usage of the silver eyes, that will finally be coming up soon enough as will Amber's part in this Trial! And of course, expect to start seeing Jaune in genuine action soon enough as well along with another few surprises from Salem!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	46. Chapter 46

Had a fair bit of difficulty figuring out how to do this chapter, at least the beginning portion. Mainly because I had to try making it somewhat obvious to humanity that yes, this random and eerie looking lady that popped out of nowhere is indeed your true enemy without making it look like Salem was just standing around for her to be introduced and what not. Not going to lie, this had honestly been rather frustrating.

That said, it's my hope that from here on out, I can avoid any other convoluted moments like this in order to maintain a more straightforward narrative to the end of this fic, even with the stuff I still have in store you for all.

Here's to hoping I'm able to pull this off!

Chapter 46

Chatter had immediately erupted over the coms link that James' ship had with the handful of people he'd put in charge of each perimeter line's communications in order to coordinate everyone's efforts as much as possible.

And it was this that immediately had Ozpin all but enraptured, if only due to what everyone using this link was saying.

Apparently, someone had all but popped up out of nowhere within the horde of Grimm, far enough away to not really be seen, but just close enough for certain features to be made out.

Ghostly white skin, a black dress, and with eyes as ominous as the Grimms' own. A woman, from the looks of things, and one whose very visage, even if only marginally visible, was enough to make them all shudder in fear.

There was no doubt about it.

"Salem…" Ozpin muttered.

Qrow, Tai, and Raven must have felt it best to take her here for some reason. Probably to try and find some measure of safety in numbers.

"Oz…" James muttered from beside him.

Ozpin barely even heard the man, however. For he'd already turned and prepared to exit the airship, his cane being held not unlike a sword while his expression was filled with grim determination.

If Salem's power was just as great as when she'd first become what she is today, then sheer numbers might make too much of a difference, provided everyone there isn't able to swarm her first.

Something he wasn't keen on simply seeing how it'd turn out.

It was high time he confronted the past now, otherwise there would be no future for humanity.

* * *

Salem was only vaguely aware of yet another portal opening up somewhere well behind her now, much closer to where those miserable humans were all trying oh so valiantly to hold the line. No doubt, it was those three that had sent her here just now.

They probably thought they could overwhelm her given enough bodies to throw at her. Which was true – her semblance, as powerful as it was, still required her to know where an attack was coming from in order to respond to it like she'd done against that red eyed woman. Even with all the Grimm here to act as protection if needed, responding properly to what would no doubt be multiple attacks from every possible angle would be tough going for her.

Especially since she'd now have to contend with one entity she'd have rather held off on going up against just yet.

The Power had neared her, many of the Grimm around them all flinching if not even outright cowering before the god, though they were all still quick to try moving in between them both.

They might as well haven't bothered, for the Power started to charge forward, smashing through the Grimm in its way as if they were made out of weak plywood at best. Not even a Goliath that had tried to charge towards the Power had been able to do much of anything, the god having slammed clean into and _through_ the massive Grimm with contemptuous ease.

It reached her in just a handful of microseconds and Salem realized right away that any attempt to counter the incoming blow would be futile.

So instead, using her semblance, she constructed the toughest barrier she could muster while simultaneously putting her arms up to block the now incoming fist.

The fist of the Power's physical form slammed into her barrier like a small comet, easily enough power to punch clear through the largest of mountains. Her barrier shuddered and visibly _cracked_ while forearms, which were up against the barrier, were nearly forced down into her own face. Not even she was really spared from the blow's effect despite it not actually making contact with her, her bones creaking under the sudden force.

The ground beneath her had all be erupted from the resulting shockwave and it blew away all the surrounding Grimm, killing them instantly.

This left her and by extension the Power fully exposed to the humans close by the city walls.

And irritatingly, she could hear that damned Qrow Branwen starting to speak.

"See that gal right there?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. She could practically envision him pointing his weapon at her. "That right there is the one behind all this – the _leader_ of the Grimm! She's the one responsible for today's events so far!"

The Power suddenly delivered a massive hook with its other hand, impacting against the side of her barrier hard enough to send her flying. Disengaging her barrier momentarily, she used her power to essentially warp the air molecules themselves, creating an invisible and curved platform for her to safely land on before being forced to leap away when the Power suddenly lunged at it at speeds surpassing lightning itself.

Letting out a grunt of genuine anger, she looked to its back and tried to use her semblance to maybe tear out a chunk of the thing, but as she'd long since suspected, it was to no avail. The Power's current form may certainly look and feel like it's physical, but the Power was ultimately a concept given form, its true form being closer to some incorporeal thing that simply had the power to interact with whatever it wanted.

It hurt to have her suspicions fully confirmed. More so to hear that damned scythe user keep talking.

"Killing her isn't possible," he said. A lie, of course; killing her was possible, just difficulty. But she supposed it was to keep the Grimm from going on a complete rampage without her around. "But beating her definitely is! So here and now is humanity's chance to beat her and the Grimm once and for all!"

Whatever sounds of agreement the other pitiful humans may have likely made in response to that, Salem didn't know. For it had been at that exact moment that she'd landed and the Power had landed as well, already turning to attack her-.

-Only for her to go on the offensive first this time.

Concentrating only marginally, she used her semblance to make the very space around her foe burst via making the atoms themselves essentially pop like balloons. This resulted in a series of small explosions ultimately combining to form one massive explosion, with enough power to wipe out entire multiple city blocks with ease being condensed into a fairly tiny space, compressing that power all around her enemy.

She could see her attack stagger the Power, more out of surprise than actual harm and it looked ready to launch its counter attack, but by then, she'd already launched her second move too.

From her back, pitch black tentacles with sharp piercers on the ends formed and thrust forth, wrapping themselves around the Power's legs before pulling back, causing it to fall.

Salem took a microscopic measure of joy in this.

Well in advance of the Trial starting, but also well after she'd met with Adam Taurus to strike that deal, she'd taken the liberty of putting her semblance to some very good use. Using it, she'd been able to take the Seer Grimm that was usually by her side into her, merging it with her on the atomic level.

This had been an idea brought on when she'd initially fused those Alpha Beowulves and Gryphons together together, having wondered if there was a way she could combat the Power directly. And this had been the solution. Although she had once been the Apostle of the Mind and had since become the Mind herself, her full ascension had significantly improved her physical abilities. Merging with the Mind back then had boosted said abilities even more. And her merging with her now sadly departed jellyfish-based Grimm had provided yet another boost to her abilities, albeit in a much smaller capacity since the Seer Grimm had never really been noteworthy for its physical threat.

Still, having its physical capabilities added to her own had provided an additional boost… plus it had allowed her to grow tentacles like this to further combat her foes. Willing them into existence, however, had taken a tad bit of concentration hence why she'd made that explosion to distract the Power.

Alas, despite all this, the Power was already getting back up and when she tried to yank on its legs with the tentacles again, it didn't budge now that it was aware of what she could do.

That was when the first bullet whizzed right by her face, startling her enough to retract her tentacles from around the Power's leg.

"Damn it…" she muttered. She could now hear the all too familiar sound of guns being cocked and ready to fire, in addition to the huntsmen beginning a forward charge towards her.

She began to back up, levitating across the ground to move faster while lashing out with the tentacles to swat aside the bullets now being fired her way.

She could've easily used her semblance to disintegrate the bullets once they got within range of her semblance's effect, but thought against it, wanting to reserve its might for the Power.

But that said, it wasn't as if she was intending to simply ignore humanity. No, she still fully intended to wipe them out and with just one simple command being mentally uttered, the all but innumerable Grimm still here roared and charged forward to meet the huntsmen in battle.

Said Grimm circled around her, making sure to give her enough room to operate in.

Sadly, this also meant the Power had enough room to maneuver in. A fact that it promptly took advantage of in a way that Salem really ought to have expected.

It literally stretched out its left arm across the meters long area at blinding speed. It was only because Salem ceased levitating and twisted to the side that she avoided being impaled on the stretching limb.

Said limb ended up stabbing through the head of an unfortunate Ursa which promptly dissipated as the limb then returned to its original length.

That was when the Power charged straight at her and she responded to this manipulating the very ground beneath it, turning it into a sinkhole. The very instant the Power fell into it and was trapped up to its upper chest, she took control of the surrounding land and molded it over the god, trapping it completely.

That was when she finally struck with her tentacles, stabbing directly through the newly formed bedrock with ease in the hopes of piercing through the Power's head.

Instead, she felt the pinchers on the tentacles fail to make any real mark in the Power's physical form and then not even a full microsecond later, the Power's hands wrapped around the tentacles' ends.

Feeling a surge of panic, Salem tried to disconnect the tentacles from herself, but the Power yanked on them before she could even begin to do so. Just as she was pulled forward, it burst out of its pitiful prison, its huge form little more than a blur to her as she was pulled at massively hypersonic speeds towards it.

On instinct, she attempted to erect a barrier to protect herself – and failed.

The Power's foot impacted against her lower stomach head on, the kicking striking her with such unbelievable might that in the instant of full awareness Salem managed to retain, she feared it would literally tear her in two, not that such a thing would kill her.

Thankfully for her, she remained in one piece overall, but her organs felt like mulch now, something her mind was somehow able to process even as she was launched miles straight into the air.

Spinning multiple times, her vision became dizzy long before the spinning came to an actual stop. Once it did and her senses began to reorient themselves, she realized she was a good four miles up in the air, with a clear view of the city of Vale, the entire place in growing shambles as many of her beloved Grimm managed to get into the city and tear apart all that they saw. Such a sight warmed her heart even in spite of her current circumstances.

It was perhaps a reminder of sorts of what she was doing all this for – the extermination of humanity, who've brought her nothing but pain. Once they were gone, she could finally be alone with the Grimm at her side, the only ones that have ever truly understood, even if they were beings that responded to her every beck and call.

Even back when she'd still been so pitifully human, the Grimm had been the only ones she could approach without fear of being dismissed or ostracized or mocked or hurt.

And it was this moment of clarity that seemed to steel her will even more.

Falling, she turned around in midair so that she fell headfirst.

And in doing so, she could see the Power now leap up in a clear attempt to smash right into her.

Just before it could connect, she twirled in midair, shifting her momentum just enough to avoid her foe by mere inches. And as soon as the Power missed, she proceeded to make a barrier around it before making it float even higher into the air…

…Just in time for one of her precious Nevermores to swoop in and swallow the god whole before flying off.

Salem let out a brief mental sigh. That barrier she'd just trapped it in is tough enough to withstand blows that could blow through mountains. So it should be able to last a hit or two from the Power before dissipating and by then, the Nevermore should've been able to carry it a fair distance away.

Still, she knew it wouldn't be long at all before it returned. And now that it had a good gauge of how powerful she truly was, it'd be able to use much more power now without having to worry over accidentally killing her, which she knew was the reason why it'd been _holding back_ thus far.

Nonetheless, she should finally have some breathing room here.

Even as she heard and all but felt more than a handful of people try to shoot at her as she continued to fall.

She hissed as she slowed her own descent, the bullets whizzing by her all around. She was more than tempted to attack, but the shooters were just out of her direct range. She could make an explosion or two to circumvent the distance issue, but her Grimm should be able to handle it now as she resumed full command upon landing.

Seeing through the eyes and hearing through the ears of all the Grimm currently around her, she commanded several packs of Beowulves to break off from the main horde and circle around to the humans while the airborne Grimm were commanded to start flying low and take up the soldiers' and huntsmen' line of sight.

As for the Goliaths, she mentally ordered them to line up side by side and march forward as a shield for the rest of the Grimm coming up from behind them.

Doing all this in a matter of seconds, Salem fearlessly strode forth herself, wishing to close the distance between her and the humans so that she could make some better use of her semblance.

Her feelings on this sudden situation were a little mixed. On the one hand, going to Vale herself had never really been part of the plan, at least not until humanity had fully been enveloped in despair for her to savor it. On the other hand, given the recent developments, being on the frontline itself had its own benefits. Benefits that she intended to now exploit.

Like being able to see with her own eyes as the wretched humans fight and die as they deserve to.

She looked somewhere to her left and saw a tall and extremely muscular man with a blunderbuss/axe weapon tearing through her beloved Ursas, the idiotic man bellowing out cries of jubilation and challenge as if this were a game.

In response to this, she formed a cage of spikes around him that promptly shrunk in on the man instantly. She didn't bother continuing to look as the cage closed shut with a sickening crunch.

To her right, she saw a green haired man with glasses all but dancing rings around one Goliath that had not been able to respond to her commands, said Grimm roaring furiously as it attempted to trample the bespectacled man. With her serving as its intelligence, she observed the man's speed and attacking patterns before giving the Goliath the command to stomp down to the spot just below its own head. This time, she watched and sneered when the Goliath's massive front foot crashed down upon its shocked attacker.

To her front, fighting alongside that cursed Qrow Branwen and the other two that had transported her here was a woman she was vaguely aware of from the time she'd sent Nevermores to spy on Beacon – Glynda Goodwitch, if she recalled correctly.

The blonde in question fought like a Valkyrie from the stories of old, moving with a speed and grace that was beautiful to the eyes yet deadlier than all else.

Well, almost all else.

With just a simple usage of her semblance, Salem manipulated the very ground beneath their feet now that she was somewhat within range, creating a sinkhole not unlike the one she'd used on the Power not even a moment ago, though this one was much larger.

To her mild annoyance, that raven haired woman who'd made that portal transformed into a raven and flew away before the sinkhole could ensnare her. However, and much to her delight, the other two and Glynda Goodwitch weren't as fortunate.

Within a fraction of a second, the three were all but sucked into the ground completely, with nary a cry able to escape their lips. The instant they were no longer in sight, Salem hastily undid the sinkhole, restoring the ground to how it was before, this time with those three troublemakers trapped within the earth.

As for that raven… well, let's see how the bitch liked _this._

Glaring fiercely at the raven, which seemed to be looking for a place to safely land, Salem made the entire space around the transformed woman, twenty feet in diameter, spontaneously combust.

She had no idea if the woman had the equivalent durability of a raven while in that state, but if so, then surely such an explosion has killed her. And if it turns out that the bitch did retain her actual toughness, supplemented by aura? Well, at least such a powerful explosion will severely injure her.

In any case, Salem was feeling a bit tempted to snicker. Just like that, in the span of not even a full minute, she'd taken out the key players on the humans' side here. Surely with them now out of the picture, she could overcome the rest without issue and march her forces into and through the city.

And when she does so, oh how she'll enjoy-.

-Wait. Just what is that?

Salem couldn't help but pause for a moment and look up into the sky.

There, coming from the city of Vale, looked like a miniature shooting star flying high into the sky, its light a blinding light blue that bordered on pure white due to the brightness. Faster than anything she's seen in her life thus far, it shot forth…

…and not even a full microsecond later, its flight path arced. Downwards.

Realization struck her like a bomb a microsecond too late. That was no shooting star, especially since it was now coming _towards_ her Grimm horde.

She had no time to properly react, however, beyond creating a several layered barrier in order to protect her from _who_ was coming.

And it proved to not be enough.

The instant the 'shooting star' struck the middle of the Grimm horde, it felt as if the entire world was bathed in its light just as all other sounds were promptly drowned out by the heaven-piercing roar of the impact.

The Goliaths she'd commanded to act as shields for the other Grimm were obliterated as were the Grimm all around them. The humans got blown back into the very wall they were trying so hard to protect, the various impacts cracking the wall.

As for Salem herself, the crash sent her flying forward as if she were lighter than air, her barrier doing little, so very little, to reduce the sheer amount of force the resulting shockwave hit her with.

As she hit the ground and finally came to a stop, it felt like minutes had passed by the time she was finally able to get back up on her feet, her entire body trembling as disorientation still heavily affected her senses, especially her sense of equilibrium.

When she finally shook it off, it was to see who had wrought such damage, the young man in question being just a bit more than twenty meters away. But with absolutely nothing in between the two of them, she was able to see who it was with ease.

"…Jaune Arc!" she all but hissed.

Standing there was undoubtedly the Power's Apostle, who didn't deem it fit to respond evidently. Or rather, it didn't seem like he was capable of such a thing right now.

For he looked… different, so to speak.

Parts of his skin and clothes were gone, revealing muscle and veins directly underneath all over his body… and even then, such things were just barely visible, with aura visibly pouring forth from these 'openings' as if to spill forth upon the world. His eyes, which had once been dull blue due to his blindness, were now hardly visible at all, aura leaking forth from them as well, the veins around the eyes quite prominent as they glowed with sheer power.

The young man did try to speak, however, or at least it seemed like he was trying to do so, but when he opened his mouth, more aura seemed to leak forth followed by a hollowed cry of pain and sheer determination.

And taking note of all this, Salem was left standing there, almost stupefied. Aura wasn't supposed to work like that. Or rather, it was impossible for it to work like that. In which case, why was her fellow Apostle in such a state?

Was this something unique to his ascension? Or was it perhaps something else?

But whatever the cause for this odd state of his was, Salem wouldn't be dwelling on it too much. If anything, this was perhaps a blessing; he seemed like he could barely stand, clearly in immense pain from whatever was happening to his body.

This may now be her one true time to strike him down without issue, with everyone else around still incapacitated.

So she began to raise her hands, ready to smite her fellow Apostle with all she had-.

-Only to feel something press against the side of her neck.

It was a cane.

"…Ozpin." She said this accursed name not as a question, but as a statement. Although it's been a long time since they've ever met, she knew very well by now that he'd switched from his old weapon to this exact cane.

And sure enough…

"Salem," came the man's voice from behind, disarmingly calm.

"So you've finally come out to fight? I'd almost started to wonder how many would have to die before you stepped forward," Salem said, mockingly.

"…I wish I could've been here sooner, but alas this was how things have played out," he said. "Now, may you be so kind as to lower your hands? I'd rather not see Mr. Arc here suffer any more than he already is. And besides… isn't it me you wish to kill the most right now?"

Slowly, Salem began to turn around and glared at the man she'd once considered a friend. Words could do her hatred of him no justice. The tentacles from the Seer Grimm she'd merged with burst from her back once more, almost hissing in response to her emotions. Ripples began to appear in the very fabric of space around her as her semblance too began to act out in response to her burning hatred.

"Oh, Ozpin, you have no idea just how much I truly hate you," she said.

"…I believe you," he said. "And I know it's far too late to ever utter the word 'sorry' to you. Nor would it ever be enough. But this, all of this, is far too much, Salem. The extinction of an entire race as 'repayment' for what you've suffered is not the answer."

"But it is," she growled. "After how you betrayed me, I saw humanity for how it truly is, a race of intelligent yet greedy and immoral vermin, so quick to jump to conclusions and vindictively slay each other for the pettiest of reasons. What I do here, I do for not just myself, but for the world itself. And with the Grimm at my command, I'll watch the entire pitiful race be trampled under their own darkness made manifest."

"Ah, but you seem to be missing something, old friend," Ozpin said, the man still not moving in spite of her being more than ready to attack at any second now. "For all your hatred and power, you'll find humans to be not so easy to kill off."

And just as he said that, the people that had been knocked down by Jaune Arc's surprise attack were beginning to get back up, much to Salem's surprise.

But what took her by surprise the most, outright bordering on complete shock, was the sight of the very people she'd thought she'd finished off.

The tall and muscular man who she'd thought had been crushed by that cage of hers emerged from it, shattering it like weak glass with only minor bleeding wounds to show for it. With no Grimm currently nearby, he looked to her with all the maddening glee he'd been demonstrating thus far.

The three she'd trapped under the ground suddenly burst forth from it, Glynda Goodwitch using her semblance of telekinesis to lift themselves out of the ground, covered in dirt and gravel but otherwise fine despite some minor coughing.

The woman that had transformed into a raven, having been blown away first by her explosion and then by Arc's landing, now got up in her original human form. Both impacts had taken an obvious toll on her, torn and burned clothing, bruises and some cuts and mild burns as her aura evidently hadn't been able to fully protect her… yet she stood up with barely any limping and turned towards her, her gaze one of tranquil fury.

The slow and heavy footsteps upon earth alerted her to Jaune Arc himself now beginning to move forward, the aura leaking out of his body audibly tearing it up even more and causing the ground itself to slightly rumble now with each step. It would seem that even in great pain, he was more than willing to keep on going.

Not once during all this did Salem's gaze truly break away from Ozpin's, however, nor did her expression change much. But her shock, nay her outright amazement, must have been obvious in some form for Ozpin couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Humanity has made many mistakes throughout history. The two of us know that far better than most," he began. "But if there's one thing you really should've remembered over these past decades… it's that humanity can also be quite resilient in all sorts of ways. So go ahead, bring your forces of darkness as much as you want, old friend. We'll all be here to confront them and ourselves until our dying breaths."

A complex mixture of emotions welled up within her. Anger was among this mixture, but not as strongly as it should have been, Salem noted in a split second of self-reflection.

"Very well then," she said, surprisingly calm. "Let's see just how well you can live up to those boasts of yours."

The Grimm horde within fifteen miles of this exact spot may have been wiped out, but plenty more were still coming and they quickened their pace as she gave out a mental call to them. She even reached out to her Wyverns, whom she could feel approaching from the west as quickly as they could. Good; they'd be most helpful in this situation.

As for herself and the others all but now surrounding her, however, they all were completely still. They were sizing her up, planning out their next moves. And so was she, taking stock of the odds now against her.

In terms of sheer power, only Jaune Arc would appear to now be her superior right now, albeit not by much. But they have the numbers advantage and the advantage of proper training and combat experience, both of which she had in small amounts relative to them. Even with her semblance, this wouldn't be easy.

But she wasn't about to back down just because she was now in such a situation. It was because she hadn't done more for herself back then that she'd been tied to the stake to burn.

Now was the time to reverse that situation from long ago.

Her fingers then twitched.

And an instant later, everyone moved.

* * *

When Jeanne, followed closely by Pyrrha and Yang, finally reached Beacon's familiar grounds, it was clear to team JNPR's leader that things have progressed significantly since the start of this day.

The Grimm, undoubtedly having come from other places other than outside the city's walls, have managed to all but outright invade the academy and the first years along with the staff that had remained behind were embroiled in battle.

Needless to say, it was absolute chaos.

Team CDRL, normally a team that liked to emphasize brute force and speed in the case of Dove, were all spread out in a circular formation, utilizing teamwork that was normally absent from their spars as they tried desperately to beat back a small yet ever growing pack of Beowulves that had surrounded them.

Seeing this, Jeanne utilized her semblance to give Yang the order to blast a few Beowulves quickly with an aura empowered shot from Ember Celica, which freed up team CDRL considerably.

But this admittedly impulsive action was nothing more than a very minor thing that would probably not do anyone much good for long. Especially not when considering that misshapen Grimm was still quite hot on their tail, being no more than five yards behind the three of them.

"What now?!" Pyrrha asked of her as they all continued to run.

"Just a little further!" Jeanne yelled back over the constant roar of battle, using her shield to hastily deflect a Boarbatusk whose charge would've grazed her otherwise. It was nearly enough to send her sprawling to the ground, but she managed to retain her footing and keep running.

In all honesty, her 'plan' was little more than a desperate gamble that may very well not amount to much. However, unless she tried, she'd never know for sure if it'd be worth it.

Now that she was here at Beacon, her primary goal was to get as high up as possible. So she charged forward, heading directly for the headmaster's tower.

Uncertain hope filled her as she made use of her semblance once more, all but mentally pleading for her two friends to defend the base of the tower as she entered and headed straight for the elevator. Through this connection her semblance has established with the two of them, Pyrrha and Yang both nodded and Jeanne could feel their own fears and hopes bounce back through the connection to her, emotions that only strengthened her resolve in making this work.

The two skidded to a stop and turned, just in time for Yang to deliver a fierce right cross to an Ursa that had tried to clumsily sneak up on her from the side. Although the blow didn't kill the bear-based Grimm, it was able to take it by surprise, knocking it back. As for Pyrrha, she threw her shield and used her semblance to make it fly around and slam into the necks and heads of various Grimm throughout the area in front of her while simultaneously using her weapon's rifle form to provide covering fire for a small group of teachers that were charging forward to drive back the heart of the forming Grimm horde.

And all the while… that very same Grimm they'd been fighting earlier was still giving chase. Thankfully, two teachers had taken notice of it and broke off from the rest of the barely coherent perimeter to draw its attention temporarily with a grenade launcher.

The last thing Jeanne heard was the Grimm's roar of surprise and anger before the elevator doors opened for her. Pressing the button rapidly, said doors then closed and it took off, heading for the headmaster's office up on the top floor.

It only took half a minute to reach said floor, but with all the fighting she could hear going on even through the thick walls of the tower, it felt much, much longer to her.

Given the way her semblance seemed to work, Jeanne was proving to be hyperaware in regards to her own emotional state and thoughts and so she took the entire elevator ride to keep her mounting agitation from fully showing through.

That said, when the elevator reached the top and finally began to open, she didn't bother waiting for them to fully open, instead using her shield and the flat side of Crocea Mors to force the elevator doors open, an action that caused a series of gears to audibly grind dangerously.

"Sorry," she quipped sheepishly to no one.

Dashing forward, she promptly leapt and smashed through the window shield-first, careful to not jump to far lest she fall to the ground below.

Stabbing her sword into the wall to prevent this, she then hoisted herself up with one hand just long enough to return her shield to its smaller and more portable form so that she now had both hands free.

She then proceeded to climb up the side of the tower until she reached the absolute top of it. However, just before she could fully pull herself up, a Nevermore that had apparently perched itself up here spotted her and cawed as it suddenly charged right at her. Jeanne let out a shrill cry of shock, having heard and seen it at the last possible second before hastily twisting to the side, an action that nearly resulted in her falling.

But she held on for dear life and as the Nevermore flew off and began to circle back around, Jeanne pulled herself up, rolled forward and then stood up, blade in hand. She spun as soon as she did so, swinging her blade as she heard the Nevermore come back for her. Thankfully, it was a fairly small Nevermore, barely her size and so when she swung, Crocea Mors was able to slice through the front of its head without too much trouble.

Even as its body collided with her and knocked her down, the blow proved to be a fatal one and the avian Grimm died, dissipating just as the blonde fell.

Getting back up as soon as she could, she then did something that was honestly quite stupid – she sheathed her blade.

Walking forward a bit, she leaned forward to survey the area below. The fighting looked even more chaotic from up here than it had down there now that she was able to see most if not all of Beacon's grounds.

And through her connection with Pyrrha and Yang, she could literally fee the two of them engaged in battle although she couldn't actually see them, their thoughts and fears slowly leaking into her own mind.

They were losing ground. She could just tell.

This meant that there was absolutely no time to waste.

"Okay… okay! I can do this!" she yelled in order to psyche herself up.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and began to concentrate.

Her semblance. The way it seemed to work was by forming some kind of mental and emotional connection with others in order to feel what they're feeling and see what they're thinking and vice versa. This made it pretty great so far because it had allowed her and her friends to coordinate their actions almost seamlessly, though there was still plenty of room for improvement.

However, there was one thing she'd noticed so far about it. It could easily be nothing, maybe just a trick of her mind… but the further away her two friends had been from her, the effort albeit marginally so thus far, was required to maintain the connection.

In other words, it seemed to her like her semblance almost functions similarly to some kind of broadcasting station. Its 'signal strength,' if it could be called that, could fluctuate depending on distance.

And she was willing to be altitude could be a factor as well.

So with her being this high up and with nothing to currently interrupt her from focusing completely on her semblance… in theory, shouldn't she be able to reach out to more people than just Pyrrha and Yang?

She was about to find out.

"Come on!" she screamed as she reached out, but alas nothing was coming to her save for the emotions and thoughts of her two friends. In regards to them, she could catch brief mental glimpses of the others, Pyrrha being worried for the rest of their team while Yang worried over hers, especially Ruby.

These were the only connections she still had, albeit stronger than before. Nonetheless, her friends' worries for the others despite being in the thick of it all was enough to make Jeanne outright roar in indignation.

If Pyrrha and Yang were able to spare others their thoughts even while fighting for their lives, then by god, she could make this work!

And ten seconds later, she managed to do just that.

She was nearly knocked out as she was suddenly connected to _everyone_ there on Beacon's grounds, their emotions and thoughts all hitting her at once. But nonetheless, she managed to remain conscious, but not before nearly stumbling.

As she got her bearings, she tried to process all that she was now taking in, everyone below in a state of constant action and reaction. But they all certainly had one thing in common-.

-Fear. Fear great enough to slowly start overwhelming even the staff that had remained behind to fight alongside their students. And who could blame them? After all, they were just as human as the rest of them and they too feared they would fall to the ever increasing amount of Grimm flitting their way through the forests here.

Time to put their fears to rest.

So with one big mental push, she poured out her feelings to them all. Her own fears followed by her hopes and resolve, attempting to drown out their negativity with something much more positive.

And just like with Pyrrha and Yang, the resulting effect had been instantaneous, each and every person freezing for just a microsecond before continuing on like nothing had happened.

Yet the change was obvious, even to the Grimm.

Just a second ago, each and every attack launched at the creatures of darkness had been performed with hopeless desperation evident in even the slightest of movements, their expressions ones of mounting fear and feeble rage. But now as they continued with their attacks, everyone demonstrated renewed vigor, weapons being swung with a much more certain determination that said blows _will_ defeat their targets, dozens of people deftly dodging claw swipes and bites that they wouldn't have been able to evade a moment ago in the midst of panic.

A sort of sudden organized formation had settled over the combatants as a result of Jeanne's thoughts leaking out to them all as she surveyed the battlefield, lines of cavalry forming even in the midst of combat to promptly begin pushing back the recent additions to the Grimm horde coming out of the forest.

Said Grimm seemed to almost recoil as it physically smacked, confusion seeming to line their otherwise unreadable expressions as humanity now began to push back with far more effectiveness than before.

" _There!"_ cried out Jeanne mentally as she spotted the odd Grimm that she and the others had been fighting earlier in the forest.

It too hadn't been expecting such a sudden change in the humans all around it and it showed as Jeanne mentally shot out various commands for the people around it to swiftly and methodically drive it back alongside the other Grimm. As much of a physical powerhouse as it was, she and Pyrrha and Yang had been able to wear it down a fair bit and now up against so many people, the Grimm proved to be just as fallible as the rest.

Watching all this play out as she all but officially took command as the people's leader, Jeanne had to keep herself from leaping up and down in joy. But it was pretty hard not to – her gamble had paid off! Jubilation unlike anything she's ever felt hit like a tidal wave and this filtered out to everyone she's now established a connection with, causing many to let out cries of joy as well as the fledgling Grimm were slowly yet surely being slayed.

The blonde couldn't help but giggle a bit at some of the thoughts she was picking up, many curious about the sudden change in themselves yet no less grateful for the effect. Hell, some people just didn't care, simply glad to suddenly be able to turn the tides like this.

Then there were some that found the commands of a cute sounding girl to be motivating in all sorts of ways, which made Jeanne blush despite the circumstances.

But her joy was abruptly cut off when she began to 'sense' something out there in the forest, relatively close by.

Other people with whom she could form connections with, it would seem, Jeanne being able to sort of pick up certain emotions and thoughts.

And boy oh boy, did some of these people feel familiar.

"Nora! Ren! Blake! Weiss! Ruby!" Jeanne called out their names as she promptly identified them, an action that some small part of mind was quick to label as rather corny yet she ignored this, simply glad to know that they were still alive and kicking. These thoughts and emotions were then trickled down to Pyrrha and Yang and Jeanne felt their hearts soar to know their friends were still out there fighting.

But this also brought about a fair share of worry.

The five of them were clearly knee deep in trouble. Jeanne had to help as did the others below. But alas, there was nothing she could do physically right now lest she risk breaking the connections she's just formed. Nor could she request anyone else to go to their location right now since the Grimm were still trying to push forward despite their disadvantage. It didn't help that said creatures were now beginning to adapt to the tactics Jeanne had almost unconsciously been mentally whispering into everyone's minds.

But that didn't mean she was going to just sit here and 'listen' fruitlessly.

Concentrating once more, Jeanne began to reach out to the others, in hopes of aiding them in her own new way.

* * *

Ruby leapt back to avoid the fist of a particularly bulky White Fang troop, spinning as she did so to narrowly avoid the hasty shots of another that had managed to recover her gun off to the side.

Landing gracefully, Ruby stood and eyeballed everything around her, almost frantically trying to figure out what to do next.

Despite her and Nora's earlier bravado, the situation hadn't improved all that much. While they'd been able to knock out a few of the White Fang, the rest had proven to be scarily resilient and determined to keep on fighting.

It didn't help that the odd Grimm they'd been dealing with prior was still around as well, said creature perfectly content to hang back and attack whenever their focus was on the White Fang for just a split second longer than it should have been.

Of course, that didn't mean it didn't bother attacking when they did focus on it.

Such as now, when it leapt over her, kicking at her head with its left leg. It was only thanks to her semblance of speed that Ruby was able to promptly avoid the kick by dashing off several feet to her right.

Where one of the remaining White Fang members chose to greet her. Specifically, the one that had been trying to shoot her who now tried to hit her with the butt of her rifle. Ruby swiftly deflected the attack with her baby in its smaller storage form, its more compact size serving as an excellent shield in the process when the bulky one from just now ran up from behind and attempted to grab her. Just as soon as she deflected the woman's rifle swing, Ruby managed to pivot in time to smack aside the man's offending hand with Crescent Rose.

After this, Ruby allowed herself to fall back and rolled to put some extra distance between her and them, but her little hits didn't do much to deter them from immediately coming after her again. Her only sole consolation was that it seemed like the female White Fang troop's rifle was out of ammo, considering how she was charging alongside her comrade rather than shooting at her.

The Grimm seemed eager to come at her too, but it was at this point thankfully that Nora, having been engaged in combat against a few other White Fang members a ways away, suddenly turned and slammed Magnhild into the ground near the Grimm, the impact grabbing its attention even as it was nearly knocked off balance.

This left Ruby free to deal with the two in front of her and she proceeded to switch Crescent Rose back into its scythe form and aimed its barrel behind her. Shooting a round, the recoil launched her forward just as she simultaneously kicked off the ground.

The two foes before her no doubt could barely even track her movements as she all but instantly crossed the distance between them, her initial retreat having just been a ruse to get the both to try following her. So with their defenses now momentarily down, she swung her weapon fiercely, the larger and blunter side of its blade striking the two White Fang members so hard that, when combined with her momentum, all but immediately sent them flying several yards back, unconscious before they even slammed into the forestry ahead.

Ruby allowed herself a millisecond of respite, there now being far less enemies than there'd been just minutes ago. But things were far from over just yet – several White Fang members still remained as did the Grimm, which was now locked in combat with Nora, who was on the defensive. As for the remaining troops, they all seemed to be getting their bearings, some of them reloading their weapons while the others spotted her.

"Uh oh…" Ruby muttered, all but actually seeing how their eyes narrowed beneath their masks as they glared at her.

The very second rifles started to be aimed her way, Ruby leapt forth and spun as fast as she could, using her semblance to accelerate faster than she's ever done so before thus far. Creating a minor whirlwind around her, she blew past the White Fang troops with enough air pressure being generated to blow them all to the sides, but she knew the instant she did this that it'll only daze them for maybe a minute at best.

And any chance she'd initially had on capitalizing on this singular moment was dashed when the Grimm suddenly broke off its fight with Nora to lunge directly at her. She just barely managed to raise Crescent Rose in time to guard against the Grimm's attack, but its strength and bulk, propelled by incredible momentum, slammed into her precious baby so hard that Ruby could've sworn she heard something slightly crack, a sound that scared her a lot more than the Grimm right now.

Its lunge pushed her back several yards, the Grimm pushing on her as this happened. On one knee even as they skidded back, Ruby tried desperately to force the Grimm off her in some way, but it was far stronger than her, the difference so great that even trying to redirect its arms to the side was all but impossible.

Her silver eyes widened when it then reared back a hand and brought it down in a chopping motion upon Crescent Rose, knocking it out of her hands. Then before she knew it, the Grimm had buried its foot into her stomach.

Pain erupted within her as she was sent flying weaponless through several trees, the kick having been so strong that it seemed to currently override the pain she should be feeling from the tree smashing. Hitting the ground, she immediately tried to get up, only to suddenly heave for a split second and then vomit out some blood.

"Ew…" she muttered sheepishly despite the situation. She's been taking a fair number of hits that her aura couldn't fully cushion, resulting in her current state. It scared her, honestly. This is the first time she's ever been this roughed up.

But she had to soldier on. With all the Grimm and White Fang goons now running around, every single able-bodied person was needed to repel them all.

…Her trump card. It was needed, now more than ever. But how she should use it here? Try to use it only in a small burst or two? Or should she go all in?

She didn't know, she didn't know at all. This was the first time she's ever been pushed so far to a breaking point. Her thoughts just weren't organizing themselves like they should be doing.

And then… that was when it hit her.

Concern. Determination. Hope.

These three things hit her like a truck, nearly knocking her onto her butt just as she'd finally managed to stand back up.

These emotions… they weren't coming from within her or anything, however. If anything, it seemed almost as if they were being sent directly to her from elsewhere.

And so Ruby looked off to the one place that made the most sense. "Beacon?" she whispered before then feeling something so very familiar about this sudden development. "Jeanne!"

Yes, her fellow first year leader. Somehow, she just knew or rather felt that it was the blonde doing this. And sure enough, there within her very mind, words seemed to just form, being uttered to her in Jeanne's all too familiar and welcome voice, sounding like a ghost on the wind yet being just as clear as if the girl herself was whispering into her ears.

Words of concern filled Ruby's mind before what could only be described as desperate orders were given.

It would seem that unlike her, Jeanne was still able to think fairly clearly, something that Ruby was most grateful for.

Feeling rather than seeing the sort of situation that was developing in Beacon and all around them, Ruby could only nod, now knowing what to do.

It kind of went against the special training she did to try controlling this new power of hers, these silver eyes. But alas now wasn't a time to be holding anything back.

So without a hint of fear that the Grimm or White Fang members would come for her, Ruby closed her eyes…

And began to concentrate.

* * *

When all of them had moved, Ozpin had proven to be the quickest of them all, lashing out with his cane with all the strength he could muster in that single instant.

His target was Salem's neck, hoping to deliver a debilitating hit that would leave her open for the others.

Alas, defense was the very first thing Salem had chosen to focus on, a thick steel-like wall forming in between the two of them that protected her from his strike, his cane just barely managing to dent it.

Ozpin's eyes narrowed.

Of everyone here that knew him, Salem naturally knew him the best. And of course, she knew his semblance quite well.

Time. Specifically, the manipulation of it on a personal level.

It's why he only looks to be in his thirties as opposed to his true age as someone several decades older. His very semblance had passively slowed his own time to a near crawl not long after hitting his peak, resulting in him obtaining a certain youthfulness and quite likely a lifespan that was significantly longer than many others in the world.

Of course, he could also use this semblance to speed up his own movements to a degree that made Oobleck look slow in comparison.

That had been what he'd just done with his initial strike, but Salem was well aware of the degree to which he could bolster his own speed, hence his failure.

This didn't deter him from an immediate follow up attack, however. With a burst of speed so masterfully executed that not even the dirt was disturbed, he circled around Salem to her unprotected side and attempted to swing at her exposed back.

But his blow came into contact with an invisible barrier of sorts, one that promptly pulsed as he made contact, forcing him back several feet.

But he rolled with this and instead took a brief second to observe what would happen next.

Sure enough, many of the others leapt into the fray in his place.

Jaune was the first to do so. Despite his concern for the young man's current state, Ozpin couldn't help but marvel at his drastically increased speed and power, albeit at the expense of control still as the blond young man slammed into the steel-like wall hard enough to instantly reduce it to rubble in addition to sending Salem flying through the air.

That was when Glynda leapt into action, launching strike after strike to the same three spots with a speed and grace that could only be described as beautiful before then using her own semblance of telekinesis to maneuver herself away just as Salem brought up a hand.

Now it was Peter who followed up, the man howling out a battle cry even as Salem launched an attack of her own, a pillar forming out of the very air itself and slamming into the massive man. But it proved to not be strong enough to halt his leap and Peter smashed right through it.

"Have at thee, villain!" the man roared as he swung down his blunderbuss with both hands, the swing so powerful that her barrier broke on contact even as its pulsing defense managed to blow back Peter.

Salem went sailing towards the ground, where Oobleck now awaited her. Ozpin joined him, holding his cane in a iado stance while Oobleck did the same with his own weapon.

Both of them unleashed a multitude of strikes with their superior speed, their weapons and themselves no doubt little more than a blur as they both assaulted Salem. While Peter and now Jaune may be much stronger physically, they were no slouches themselves.

Ozpin kept track of how many blows actually struck Salem, who'd used her semblance to affect space itself to ward off their barrage. Only two dozen swings managed to actually strike her, hurting the woman but hardly enough to do her any true lasting harm.

Then to his great surprise, the woman glared at him right before _throwing a punch_ through his barrage of blows. He was quick to deflect it, however, yet at the same time this gave Salem the slightest of openings in order to push away from the two of them.

She then thrust her hand straight up and the very ground beneath his and Oobleck's feet ripped up and shot into the air, with them still atop it.

Ozpin nodded to Oobleck who nodded back and the two of them promptly began to leap down the continuing upwards climb of the debris.

As he did this, Ozpin saw the two Branwen siblings make their collective move, Qrow swinging his weapon in its sword form towards Salem's knees from behind while Raven aimed for her neck from the front.

To his surprise as well as to that of the siblings, Salem physically reached out and tapped the blades before pushing them away with an impressive grace about her.

"Oh dear…" he muttered as he reached ground level.

While Salem's formal training had long since been incomplete, she had a very quick learning curve. While she'll likely never be able to truly match any of them in direct combat without her semblance, it'd only be a matter of time before her own skill progressed enough to at least ward them off directly if needed.

And it seemed like that time was already fast approaching. To be expect, he supposed, given that now of all times her focus must be completely on them all rather than on commanding the Grimm.

And speaking of which…

One brief look to the west showed that already, more of the Grimm were fast approaching. Not only that, but quite a handful of Grimm that had already reached the city of Vale were beginning to turn back, no doubt to aid their master.

He could see the remaining soldiers and huntsmen already turning to face the Grimm from the city, but Ozpin knew it'd only be a matter of time before sheer numbers overwhelmed them all.

In other words, they all were working on a deadline. They must hurry.

Alas, Salem naturally wasn't going to make that easy.

The woman, after batting aside the Branwen siblings, let out a cry as she then swiftly kneeled and palmed the ground, the very action generating a ripple that made the ground break apart and elevate itself more and more the further the ripple went.

This attack resulted in them all having to halt their next moves and took a few microseconds to retain their balance.

And Ozpin knew right away that this was the opening Salem had intended to make, for she then raised both hands and slammed them both together.

In response to her will, the rising slabs of earth did the same. With everyone still on them.

"What the devil-?!" Peter managed to get out when the slab of earth he was on twisted and smashed into another massive slab.

"…ah!" Glynda saw what was going on and immediately tried to avoid this, leaping as quickly as she could. Even then, it was going to clip her and she started swinging her weapon, enhanced by her semblance to cut up the incoming slabs as much as possible.

The Branwen twins transformed and took to the sky, their now much smaller forms allowing them to avoid being crushed while Taiyang masterfully leapt to the side, parried the slab that would've graze him otherwise and then used the resulting power gained from this to punch the slabs apart.

Unfortunately, it seems Jaune wasn't as lucky, the amount of pain he appeared to be in keeping him from moving in time.

Ozpin and Oobleck managed to avoid the slabs in time and the headmaster was just about to go to Jaune's rescue and then Peter's, but he was quick to revise his course of action when the two of them promptly burst out of their crushed together slabs.

"Ha… they both are certainly monstrous," Oobleck commented from beside him, saying this with a hint of admiration.

"Indeed," Ozpin replied with a small smile. It'd been rather foolish of him to underestimate the two's durability and strength.

Now returning his focus to Salem, it was to see the woman with her eyes closed, clearly concentrating. Suddenly barking out an order for everyone to get back, Ozpin choose to leap forward instead, trusting his time-enhanced speed to be able to reach her in time.

And he proved himself right, reaching her while her eyes were still closed, though the flinch of surprise Salem's expression then experienced told him that she was aware of his sudden presence.

But just as she began to move her hands to do something, Ozpin struck her along the side of her left knee before delivering an elbow strike to her exposed throat. These two strikes were simply meant to stop her from whatever she was trying to do, not necessarily hurt her. As a result, the power behind these two blows were lacking.

However, this was merely setting up the true blow, which came in the form of a powerful thrust with his cane that connected with the very center of Salem's chest, an attack that would've surely stabbed through anyone else.

In Salem's case, all it did was undoubtedly hurt and knock her away. But before she could go flying too far, her eyes opened and those same tentacles from before emerged and launched themselves at Ozpin at lightning speed.

He dodged the first two before swatting aside the third. However, the fourth tentacle shot completely past him, much to his surprise.

Turning to see where it was aiming for, it was to see it piercing a Nevermore twice the size of his head, said Grimm having likely been called here during Salem's moment of concentration just now.

It let out a caw before something unbelievable happened, the Nevermore suddenly bubbling up and turning completely black before seeming to fuse with the tentacle that had pierced it.

This resulted in an almost comically large mass on the end of the tentacle that then proceeded to travel back towards Salem.

Ozpin had no idea what this was about, but he wasn't about to let it happen. He proceeded to swing at the tentacle before the mass could reach Salem, but an explosion suddenly occurred in front of him, forcing him to concentrate his own aura into a barrier to protect himself from it.

Unfortunately, by the time he dropped the barrier, the mass had reached Salem and she let out a pleased hum as it merged with her, sinking into her body. The veins on her face and arms grew darker somehow and became more prominent, just as wings now burst forth from her back.

Ozpin's eyes widened, alarmed. Then the very next thing he knew, he was instinctively raising his own cane up defensively faster than his mind could process this.

His instincts proved to be correct in their action though, for Salem suddenly slammed right into him, _faster than he could see_.

And with impressive strength as well, the two of them being propelled upwards before Salem flapped her newly formed wings hard enough for the resulting gust to blow him away.

He was quick to land on the ground, but the instant he did so, a barrier not of his own making immediately formed around him and proceeded to sink into the ground, causing him to go down with it.

"Oz!" he could hear Qrow cry out, the man having clearly turned back to his original human form.

Pinned as he was, he couldn't see what the others must now be doing, but he could certainly listen.

The now telltale sign of Jaune moving occurred and a great deal of air was disturbed close by, indicating that the young man must have just dashed by him, evidently towards Salem.

A colossal clash promptly occurred, blowing back some of the others judging by the sound of it.

However, Glynda suddenly approached him, her familiar heels coming into view.

"Hold still!" she commanded of him, which he obeyed right away. Glynda began to slice away at the barrier with her blade. Ozpin could also detect her using her semblance on the barrier itself, trying to forcibly break it apart from the inside with her telekinesis.

Peter promptly passed by at some point, evidently to go aid Jaune.

As the large man did so, Ozpin blinked when he could hear a vague rumbling coming from high up above.

And then he smiled. It seems like there was one more person to be joining in right now.

* * *

Amber could say without a hint of hesitation that she'd let herself perhaps get a bit too distracted up until now. From the moment everyone had begun to make their moves up until now, she'd concerned herself initially with aiding Atlas' fleet with taking on the airborne Grimm before she began to notice said creatures of darkness start coming from the other sides of the city. At which point, she'd trailed well away from where most of the fighting had been taking place at in order to drive back the Grimm presence that had been trying to approach from the north and south of Beacon academy.

Results had been mixed since she'd tried to avoid using too much of her power to take them down and as a result more than a handful of Grimm had slipped through. Not that using her full might would've made that much of a difference admittedly; there was too many Grimm for any one person to fully hold back.

But then she'd seen and all but outright felt someone leap from the city and into the main Grimm horde coming from the west and the resulting impact had definitely grabbed her attention, having prompted her to consider her job over here done for now and had rushed over to see what was going on now.

And what a surprise she'd bore witness too once things had come into sight.

First, on her way to the frontlines, she'd spotted Tenebrous punching its way out of a massive Nevermore, the god sprouting wings in its physical form as it did so in order to take flight. After this, the Power had joined her on her flight over to the main conflict and had been swift to inform her of what was going on now.

Needless to say, she'd been shocked. To think that Salem, the Mind of the Grimm, was now here just outside the walls. Granted, it evidently hadn't been the woman's own choice, but still.

Despite the great danger the woman posed, however, this was also a prime opportunity to wear her down as much as possible and it was a chance she intended to fully capitalize on.

So it was now with all this in mind that, upon reaching said battlefield, she floated hundreds of feet directly above where Salem was at, the woman seeming to be clashing with Jaune, who looked to be in less than a stellar state.

Channeling the maiden power, the already cloudy weather today intensified slowly at first before picking up speed, storm clouds forming and then merging into one massive cloud. She concentrated fiercely, pouring her own power into the cloud in order to further bolster the strike she was about to unleash from mother nature.

Such concentration left her levitating rather helplessly in place, which would've left her open to the many Nevermores and Gryphons still flying around were it not for Tenebrous' presence, the god circling around and fending off all Grimm that tried to gun for her.

Nearly twenty seconds before her attack was ready, said incoming strike being heralded by a deafening rumble that absolutely no one could possibly ignore.

Sure enough, the fighting down below seemed to slow down microscopically, just enough for the others to finally realize the change that had occurred in the weather.

And oh, Amber wouldn't lie – it was quite a delight to see the utterly stupefied look on Salem's face upon seeing the enormous storm cloud above her, just as precipitation preceded what was to come.

Already, Amber could see the woman immediately attempt to defend herself from the strike to come in some form, but that was when three people – one blond man and two others that looked like siblings – suddenly rushed her, their simultaneous strikes forcing her to guard against them with some kind of suddenly manifested stone wall rather than fully mount a defense against this. After which, the three attackers leapt away just as suddenly as they'd attacked.

Amber didn't dare waste this chance.

"Eat this!" she roared as loud as she could as she thrust a hand down.

Her roar couldn't even begin to compare to the roar of the utterly massive lightning bolt that suddenly shot down at several times lightning's natural speed. She might as well have been letting out a silent scream.

The lightning bolt, nearly twenty _yards_ in width, shot forth at its target, its light so blinding that Amber was forced to look away to protect her own eyes.

And the instant she did this, it struck the ground, the impact so powerful and loud that even as far up as she was, she could feel the air being displaced while the very soundwaves the lightning generated actually pushed her back a bit.

It was several seconds before the resulting smoke began to clear and during this time, Amber made sure to maintain the storm cloud's presence in case a second strike was needed.

Alas, it didn't seem like it might be necessary at this exact moment for it looked like Salem was down on her knees, all but keeling over.

Lowering her altitude a fair bit for a better look, Amber could now see that the bun Salem's hair had bene in before had been undone by her strike, her pure and eerie white hair hanging loose now with some of the ends very much sizzling. The cape-like part of her dress had been utterly annihilated, revealing part of her mid-back, showing her completely white skin, though it was marred by those same pitch black veins on her arms, the sleeves of which that had been covering them being gone as well.

Burns and scratches littered her skin here and there but were overall fairly minor compared to what ought to have happened when struck by something that powerful.

It was honestly quite ridiculous. "Just how tough is this woman?" Amber muttered.

" **Tough enough, I suppose,"** Tenebrous said from beside her, the Power's booming voice somewhat taking her aback from how close it was. Evidently, it's dealt with the airborne Grimm in the area. Its wings flapped a few times to keep it floating directly by her side, though the god's posture indicated it wasn't about to remain idly by much longer. **"We must continue our attack before she gets up again. Prepare to swarm he-."**

Whatever sort of attack the god had been planning was unknown to Amber, for at that very moment, a light – a familiar light – suddenly became visible for all of them to see.

And it was coming from the forest in between Beacon and the city.

Immediately, Amber recognized it as the light that had occurred during the Breach and her eyes went wide with shock.

That girl, Ruby Rose… she was using her silver eyes. The same eyes that would've done her serious harm had she not been protected from it during the Breach.

The light was somehow even greater in scope than it had been before, the power lacking slightly yet noticeably so compared to last time, yet reaching far greater distances at a much greater speed than the first time around.

On her own, Amber never would've been able to figure out a way to defend herself from. But thankfully her, she didn't have to worry about such a thing.

For Tenebrous immediately got between her and the light, its massive physical form all but enveloping her just as the light reached out to this area.

The very last thing Amber was able to see was the sight of all the Grimm within the city simply ceasing to be…

And then Tenebrous was sent sprawling to the ground below, taking her along with it.

* * *

Jaune hissed as the silver light enveloped him. With his body in its current state, he felt the sting of the silver eyes much more acutely than he had before, albeit it hadn't actually done him any real harm. Not to say that it didn't hurt given the state his body was still in.

When he'd initially detected Salem's presence, he'd been torn between going to his sister's and Beacon's aid and coming here to confront the woman in question. Obviously, given his current location, he'd chosen the latter option, but not without a bit of a heavy heart.

In any case, when he'd arrived here barely a moment or two ago, it'd been with a literal bang and from there, it'd been touch and go for him. While certainly getting more and more powerful by the minute, it came at the expense of his body being in rougher and rougher shape, so much so that he was pretty sure parts of it were outright _gone_ , though this didn't explain why he still felt sensations coming from said 'gone' parts.

That said, he was getting used to his growing power now, enough to not go streaking miles off into the distance and actually be of use to the others gathered here against Salem.

However, with the silver light now being let loose, despite it not hurting all that much, it was enough to make him stop in place from how it aggravated the continuously damaging parts of his body. This wasn't a good thing.

It was only because of how the silver light also seemed to be affecting Salem that kept it balanced out, the woman in question remaining in an almost keeled over position. And while she was definitely tough, she didn't quite rival him in that department, judging by the way she screamed in pain.

But wait a second here. Something just felt off despite how long the silver light was lasting.

Call it instinct or not, but Jaune couldn't help but feel like things were somehow going to get worse before they started to actually get any better.

Alas, with the silver light also rendering his Aura Vision almost completely blind, he couldn't see what, if anything, may be amiss.

And so it wasn't until the light finally began to fade that he was able to 'see' once more…

And what he saw alarmed him.

Salem was once more manipulating her aura in ways unlike anything he's ever seen before, even for her semblance. Her aura was seeping into the very ground below her, spreading out for as far as he could see.

Towards himself, towards Ozpin, towards Glynda and Peter and Oobleck and the others, all of whom were within the range of her semblance and currently standing there albeit in defensive positions due to how blinding Ruby's silver eyes had been.

And the way the aura seemed to fluctuate… he knew what she was trying to do.

Salem was going to try _absorbing them all_.

" _MOVE!"_ he yelled at the very top of his lungs, louder than he's ever yelled before. Only the smallest part of his mind took note of how distorted his own voice was starting to sound.

Whether or not any of the others noticed this change in himself was unknown, but in any case, they all instantly obeyed, leaping in different directions away from their current positions.

But rather than get mad at having her 'prey' avoid her, Salem now proceeded to let out a pained and raspy laugh.

"Did you really think I was aiming for them?" she muttered out hoarsely.

Jaune could only listen to this in shock upon seeing her aura continue to stretch out past the spots everyone had been in… before burrowing even deeper into the earth below.

It wasn't until a split second later, when he finally regained his ability to move that he finally 'saw' what the aura was going for, said aura highlighting their forms-.

Grimm. Specifically, Earth Dragons. They were a surprisingly rare form of Grimm found out in the wilderness of Vale, well outside any walls the kingdom had. They were essentially the much smaller 'relatives' of the Sea Dragons that lived out in the oceans, looking very similar in appearance to them yet lacking the massive wings the latter type of Grimm had in addition to having different facial features that made the Earth Dragons look more akin to basilisks.

They were also one of the very few types of Grimm to not really go around attacking people unless their places of rest were disturbed, which was hard to do given how far down the Earth Dragons liked to burrow through.

For them to be here and now… Salem must have been silently calling for them during the fighting earlier!

"I must say, this has been quite a turn of events," Salem said as she now slowly stood, just as her aura began to fully envelop the Earth Dragons, their small size making it easy for them to suddenly be broken apart and absorbed.

Jaune immediately turned around, ready to blitz Salem before this could go on any further… only to stumble. He may have recovered his ability to move, but that didn't mean he could move that well again just yet.

A fact that Salem chuckled darkly at. "I will grudgingly humanity credit when due – your allies certainly gave me a run for my money there for a few moments. But that ends _now._ " She grunted as the Earth Dragons were fully absorbed, Jaune able to see their broken-down mass being pulled back by Salem's aura towards her. "Believe it or not, this was an idea that didn't really come to me until quite some time ago, after I'd made a little deal with that foolish Taurus. But to think I'd actually be forced to act on this idea so thoroughly…. Guess I really must do things myself."

"Salem…!" Jaune growled out, still trying to move. With his gaze focused on her as the absorbed mass finally reached her and began to merge with her, he was only audibly aware of the others finally dashing forward to combat Salem once more.

He could even hear some of them start shooting from where they were at, but Salem simply waved her hands and the various shots fired simply disintegrated when they were barely several feet away from her.

By now, her entire form started to writhe and change as it incorporated the additional mass and by extension power she'd just gained. She laughed once more, the pain she was feeling before now gone and instead developing an echo-like effect to it.

" _Not that I mind, of course,"_ she uttered. _"No, if anything, having the power to wipe out humanity by my own hands… it isn't such a bad thing at all."_

And before his own eyes, Jaune could only watch in horror as Salem began to change.

* * *

The cry of absolute agony Adam Taurus let out was enough to make Weiss outright freeze in place. She wasn't alone in this for the others did so as well.

Even the very few White Fang members that had somehow managed to avoid the man's attack from earlier could only stop and stare at what was going on.

Just seconds ago, a blinding silver light that was now quite familiar to her and the others had enveloped the entire area before slowly fading and with it, the Grimm that had been a bane to their existences vanished along with it. Such a thing ought to be a cause for joy, but instead the heiress and her two friends could now only look on at the sight before them.

There, now leaning against a tree was their main attacker, a bull-type Faunus that had evidently been close to Blake in the past, prior to Beacon. And he was hurt, he was _hurt_. Not by any actions of their own, but by the silver light that Ruby had undoubtedly been the cause of.

And to their amazement and horror, the light seemed to have trigger _something_ within Adam Taurus.

His form… it convulsed. It pulsed. And then… it began to _change_.

He grew in mass, particularly in his upper body while his very skin warped into something inhuman, growing pitch black before red glowing veins appeared all over his skin as it tore his coat. His teeth grew larger and sharper as did the horns atop his head, curving outwards as it threatening to stretch out and impale them.

His feet grew in size, destroying his shoes and morphing slowly into hooves while his upper body began to grow almost hunched back.

"SaLEM!" he suddenly roared. " **I sHOUd'lve KNOwn** that **SHE** wou **LD've** BETRAYed **MEEEE-!"**

His voice… there was no real way for Weiss to even think of describing it. It just seemed to switch in tone and volume on a level that was in no way natural… until he roared a second time, after which whatever humane qualities the man may have possessed simply ceased to be entirely.

A minotaur… or at least something eerily similar to such a thing. It was the only description that came to Weiss' mind as she looked upon Adam Taurus' new form, the very black matter that his body now seemed to be made of even extending to his sword, warping and molding it into a massive slab of pitch black matter with familiar bony white material forming over it. Said bone-like matter formed as well over his chest and his face, completing the transformation for good.

He bellowed, letting loose a terrible sound that rattled her very bones. From beside her, Blake could just barely be heard mumbling the man's name in complete horror.

Weiss couldn't blame her, she supposed.

To her other side, Ren shakily lifted his weapons, ready to fight as the former man glared fiercely at the three of them, no signs of sentience being within those burning red orbs now.

It was unbelievable, simply unbelievable – the stuff of nightmares really.

Somehow, this man had gone and transformed into something that was part man and part Grimm, with all the power of both, she'd imagine.

And now… now this _thing_ that was no longer who it was before, charged at them, its newly formed weapon raised.

Yet Weiss, being the apparent recipient of the incoming blow, did nothing, unable to even raise Myrtenaster an inch.

Instead, all she could was stare into those horrible, horrible eyes as the thing's weapon came down.

* * *

 **Hands down, one of the harder chapters I've written for this fic. Mainly because I had a few problems figuring out exactly how I want to do the Salem bit at the end there. I mean, I know I've sort of foreshadowed such a thing, but I wasn't sure whether or not her gradual transformation was something that'd be out of the blue to you guys or not.**

 **So please let me know how I handled this particular event!**

 **As for Adam's thing, I also do hope you all remember as well what exactly Salem did to allow him to lead those Grimm in the first place, which is what triggered his transformation at the end there, albeit after Ruby's silver eyes failed to destroy it and instead simply caused it to go berserk in a sense.**

 **Whelp, up next, you can expect the fighting to become more centralized now with the immediate Grimm threat in the city of Vale neutralized for now. But that doesn't mean the Grimm still aren't tearing apart the other kingdoms. And now with Jaune and Salem in the same place with little else to fully distract each other, expect the Apostles to really start duking it out! And especially look forward to what else I still have planned before the end!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care and have a great Christmas/holiday and a Happy New Year!**


	47. Chapter 47

Happy New Years, everyone! I know that this is a bit late, but I do hope you all had a great holiday. But man, hard to believe it's already 2018. Time feels like it goes by faster and faster every single year, to me at least.

Personally, I feel that 2017 had been a very eventful year, both on a personal level and on a much larger level – globally, really. I get the feeling that this new year in turn will be just as eventful, but whether that'll be a good thing is naturally going to be up for debate.

Whelp, beyond that, not much else I can say – I don't even have any real New Year resolutions. That said, I am resolved to try finishing this fic fairly soon.

As for the next fic, no idea when I will finally start writing that, but hopefully no later than the end of March, depending on how things go.

Now then, onto the chapter!

Chapter 47

It was with an odd sense of horror that Amber chose to descend onto the ground, Tenebrous at her side.

She didn't have much of an idea what was going on right now and from the looks of it, neither did anyone else here. All she knew for sure is that some sort of considerable mass was suddenly swirling around Salem, her power all but literally visible and growing.

And of course, Tenebrous' comment at that exact moment didn't really help. **"…This is bad."**

As soon as the Power said that, whatever Salem was doing seemed to just stop and the changes, while not hardly grand, were still noticeable even from this distance.

The clothes that had been damaged now seemed restored, with a pool of veritable darkness and crimson red seeming to extend from her restored dress and covering her feet, which also had the extended benefit(?) of making her seem a few feet taller even though she likely wasn't.

Black and red veins had appeared on Salem's face and arms and it looked as if her hair had gotten a little longer too, the tips dyed an ominous blood red.

But what really stood out were the tentacles from before that she'd seen, the limbs in question having seemed to have morphed into something else entirely, having grown and merged and molded themselves into something akin to wings than anything else.

And so Amber could only stare, unable to do anything else.

Something about Salem now… it just sort of captivated her as it did to everyone else here, almost as if they were all trying to simply process what was going on.

Then movement finally occurred.

Three combatants – Jaune, Ozpin, and Tenebrous, who'd just been by her side an instant ago.

These three suddenly went on the offensive, forcing Amber to pretty much blink stupidly as it occurred.

She watched as Jaune, the closest to Salem, made the first actual move, having all but lunged at the woman at a speed that she could barely even _see_ and throwing a punch that would've killed a Goliath instantly.

Salem, in response, merely closed her new wings around her and they took the punch for her. The resulting shockwave was so powerful that it nearly blew them all back. But it also snapped them all out of their stupor and quickly begin to move again.

Ashamed of how shocked she'd been, Amber was quick to take to the sky again, knowing that it'll likely be up to her to provide support.

But before she could begin to do so and also before any of the others could do much else, that had been when Ozpin and then Tenebrous finally launched their own blows, barely a few microseconds after Jaune had attacked.

Ozpin circled around Salem and swung his cane downwards at what appeared to be the base of the wings. But something – Amber didn't have a clear view of it – seemed to ward Ozpin off, repelling his strike and causing the headmaster to almost stumble back.

As for Tenebrous, the god charged forward before leaping, smashing through a myriad of walls that seemed to form out of nothing and even shrugging off what appeared to be several spontaneous explosions that slowed it only slightly before reaching Salem. It brought both hands down clasped together in a hammer blow, the power of which was easily twice that of Jaune's initial punch.

Once more, Salem's new wings guarded against it, the woman merely raising them a bit higher to accommodate the angle Tenebrous attacked from.

The instant its fists made contact with the wings, resulting in an audible crunch even from this distance, what looked like a miniature tornado suddenly formed directly around Salem.

Amber could only watch as said tornado uprooted the three initial attackers and threw them well away from Salem. At the very same time this happened, the others had started to get close.

So she promptly decided to provide an opening.

Just as it looked like Salem was finally moving, Amber concentrated her power and created her own little tornado within Salem's, having it spin counterclockwise in an attempt to cancel it out.

With considerable effort, she succeeded and immediately after the tornados ceased to be, Qrow down below immediately started to open fire on Salem from afar.

Salem waved her arm at a blurring speed and a veritable wave of pure energy was unleashed in the man's general direction. But Qrow disengaged, transformed into a crow and took flight just before the wave could connect.

Then Glynda and another woman with black hair and red eyes dashed forward, blades in hand. One obstruction after another began to appear as Salem took notice of them and the two women swiftly dodged each obstacle, bobbing and weaving in between and outright leaping over other ones that spanned several meters.

The two got surprisingly close to Salem, who was still backing away from everyone at a brisk pace, their weapons ready to be unleashed upon her.

Amber decided to help with that with just two moves.

Her storm from before still semi-active, she commanded the lightning above to be fired down just behind Salem. And sure enough, the lightning struck the ground with enough power to seemingly take Salem by surprise, forcing her to stop where she was.

That was just her first move. Her second move saw two twisters forming to either side of Salem, keeping her from moving to either side lest she be ripped off the ground.

This gave Glynda and that other woman the opening needed to jump and swing their blades at Salem vertically. Thanks to her two moves having caught the woman by surprise, it didn't seem like she could form a barrier in time to protect herself.

Alas, it proved to not be needed – Salem simply reached out with both hands and caught the blades in between her _fingers_ before twisting and throwing the two women to either side.

Seeing that they were going to end up caught in her twisters, Amber hastily canceled them out, sparing Glynda and that raven-haired woman a bit of trouble. And thankfully, the two were able to gracefully spin in midair and land on their feet… right before Salem simply waved both hands and sent them both flying back with some sort of invisible shockwave.

"Ha! Try repelling me, witch!" bellowed out that man, Peter Port, who was being flanked by Oobleck and Qrow, the latter having landed beside him just a second ago.

Salem appeared to smile haughtily as the three approached, even as they split off and obviously tried to pull off some kind of triangle maneuver.

With just a thought, an invisible wall seemed to make its appearance, all but outright halting Oobleck as he nearly ran face-first into it from Salem's right.

Qrow nearly ran into the same thing as he approached from the front, but to Amber's surprise, whatever invisible obstacle Salem had conjured up failed to stop him much.

As for Peter, whatever barrier was constructed failed to stand up to the man's might as he audibly smashed through something there, coming at Salem now from her left.

Rather than leap and attack like the others had, Qrow and Peter opted for something else. The former spun and then bent low, swinging his weapon, now in its scythe form, directly at the black and red mass that seemed to be elevating Salem. He clearly wanted to cut Salem down to size. As for Peter, the man unleashed a torrent of swings with his weapon at Salem's torso, clearly intending to eviscerate her.

But like before, their attacks proved useless. The very mass extending from Salem seemed to bend, avoiding Qrow's attack by centimeters while Salem did something incredible and managed to parry a good number of Peter's swings with just her arms as her wings reared themselves back.

Then her wings flapped harshly and the air pressure it generated was actually enough to force Peter back a bit. The man had anticipated this and had been quick to call off his attack lest the wind blow his own weapon back in his face. But this also left him open to a massive pillar forming out of the ground at an angle. It slammed hard into his expose stomach and kept on extending, all but blasting the behemoth of a man off into the distance.

Qrow was currently the only one who remained as of this instance and Amber knew that the man was, to put it simply, fucked. Not unless she really started to provide better back up here.

So that's what she did.

As a maiden, control of the weather was a pretty simple thing to pull off and it was entirely all too easy to further enhance nature's terrifying power with her own aura. The one true downside to this is that her power still operated by nature's rules, more or less. That meant she couldn't simply be making lightning curveball or make twisters bend completely horizontally and so on and so forth, though she certainly had a lot of 'leeway' with what she can do still.

But that said, in order to really unleash the most powerful strikes imaginable, it took a fair bit of time to 'charge up' as one could put it.

Time that she didn't have as Salem was almost hastily quick to launch her own attack at Qrow – some sort of massive explosion all around her, so massive that it almost reached even her despite how high up she was right now.

But Amber had plenty of time to move back and she watched as Qrow did so as well. The man then seemed to look up at her and hefted up his weapon as he switched it into its sword form. He was pointing straight up at the lightning still crackling above within the storm clouds almost eagerly, like a kid wanting his present early.

Amber understood what he was getting or so she liked to think.

So when the explosion came to an end, Qrow blitzed forward and raised his sword, ready to swing it horizontally.

As he did so, Amber called forth lightning once more and fired it downwards.

She saw Salem eye her and the lightning in particular, no doubt the woman thinking it was about to come for her and she seemed to be shifting in order to defend against it…

Except it wasn't aimed at her.

It instead struck Qrow's sword just as he began to spin, whatever metal the blade was made out of seemly absorbing the lightning just well enough to make the entire weapon crackle with power.

Said power was clearly not meant to be tamed, for arcs of lightning still shot off the blade and fried parts of Qrow's clothes and hair, though his own aura managed to protect his body in and of itself well enough from it.

And then he swung it at Salem, curving his blade up at an angle in order to not just cut the mass below her, but also to try crippling a leg if possible.

Thanks to the split second of time that Salem had wasted focusing on Amber and the lightning at first, Qrow was able to actually land this strike, his lightning enhanced blade cutting through the mass and Salem's leg with ease.

The woman let out a cry of surprise and pain as the damage was inflicted and it was enough to invigorate Amber a bit. It was hardly anything noteworthy, but it went to show that, power up or not, Salem could still be wounded.

And as if in direct response to this attack landing, everyone that had gotten blown away earlier – that is to say, Salem's three initial attackers, Jaune and Ozpin and Tenebrous – had finally managed to get back up and were once more rushing to engage Salem once more.

Not wanting to simply hang back any longer like this, Amber quickly lowered herself to the ground and used her power to form a lance made out of earth, the young woman feeling most eager in getting up close and personal now.

By the time she did so, the three attackers were already upon Salem, this time looking far more prepared when their simultaneous strikes didn't end with them being blown away again.

As the resulting shockwaves nearly blew her back, Amber couldn't help but feel oddly excited.

Call it an unknown feeling of hers, but she couldn't help but feel as if this may all be coming to an end pretty damned soon.

* * *

"Report!" James barked out for what felt like the tenth time so far.

Being in on everything going on, he knew right off the bat that the silver eyes had just been put to use a moment or so ago. However, while he was well aware of their capabilities, that didn't mean he should just assume the immediate Grimm threat had been dealt with.

Already, whoever was still standing was being tasked with scoping out the situation directly down in Beacon below in addition to the troops stationed within Vale itself doing the same thing.

"Sir, so far no Grimm have been detected within the city! Same thing goes for Beacon down below!"

He nodded, figuring as much. "Good. Tell them to keep searching anyways for now; I want every single inch of land checked as much as possible for now!"

The person that had spoken just now replied with an affirmative and went on to relay his orders.

Just as this happened, another one of his various aids approached him. "General Ironwood! There are still plenty more Grimm out there, just past the mountains! By our estimations, it'll only take them about another fifteen minutes before they reach the city!"

Once again, something that he'd figured as much. The silver eyes, even when utilized to their fullest, can only cover so much ground.

What's more…

"What about directly outside the wall?" he asked of the aid.

There was still the matter of Salem, who'd surprisingly appeared not so long ago. Ozpin had gone to confront her alongside the others there.

Given what he now knew about the woman, he had to wonder if defeating her would be truly possible considering the consequences should she be killed. Assuming, of course, killing her was even possible – she would no doubt be a powerful foe for anyone that confronted her.

"It would seem that whatever battle is being waged out there is still going on. The amount of fighting makes it hard to tell which side holds the true advantage, however," the aid said after a moment, looking over whatever info she was receiving via verbal reports over her coms unit and the data pad she had.

Then her expression scrunched up in confusion. This didn't put the general at ease.

"What? What is it?" he asked of her.

"…It now seems like the Grimm horde are changing direction – at this rate, they're all going to converge at the battle right outside the walls, sir."

James took all of a second to ponder that.

Given that everyone's focus there was Salem herself, suddenly having to deal with that many incoming Grimm would easily prove fatal for them all.

That couldn't be allowed to happen.

"How many ships do we still have in the air?" he asked.

"Not many, sir," the aid said sadly. No doubt the number of casualties was significant so far given this Trial. "We have about a dozen still remaining, but not in very good shape."

"…Send them out. Have them go and see if they can soften up that horde a bit," spoke James rather softly. He didn't want to lose anymore soldiers here, no matter how inevitable it may be. "But tell them to retreat if things start to get out of hand. If they can at least take out some of the airborne Grimm, that'll be enough."

"Yes sir…" the aid said before stepping away to relay his orders.

James didn't bother hiding the heavy sigh he then let out, the events of today already weighing him down.

"How about in the other kingdoms?" he called out to no one in particular. "I want status reports on them!"

"Yes sir!" everyone said in unison.

James then walked forward and almost went to rest his hands on the rails there, but resisted. It was a sign of nervousness and that was not something he needed to show in front of his crew right now. With everything going on, he as a leader showing too much nervousness would only harm morale.

He only had to wait several seconds before reports started coming in.

"General, it seems like White Fang troops have made a move in Mistral!"

"Same thing in Atlas, but in much smaller numbers, sir!"

"Vacuo too! …But it seems like the White Fang are already on the verge of being pushed back!"

At that, James couldn't help but quirk and eyebrow.

"Pushed back, eh? By what force? The students and huntsmen from Shade?" he asked.

"N-No, sir," spoke the communications worker in genuine surprise. "Well, yes, actually… but only partially – it seems like a sort of militia had been haphazardly put together by the locals on the spot to repel both the Grimm and the White Fang!"

Now that was pretty damned impressive, so much so that it made the general smirk just a bit. Went to show that no matter what, humanity wasn't quite willing to go down without a fight.

"Any idea of where exactly this militia is located? How about whoever's leading it?"

The worker asked whoever he was speaking to and a moment later turned to give the general an answer. "Apparently, it's a couple – last name… Arc."

At that, James couldn't help but gape mildly. Then, upon regaining his composure a second later, he snorted rather derisively. Yet there was more than a hint of amusement in his tone.

"Really now… talk about a small world."

* * *

In Vacuo, the tide of battle had changed significantly since the Grimm had begun their assault on humanity.

The ones that had attempted to lay waste to what could be considered one of the key cities in this kingdom had been utterly wiped out.

And by civilians, no less.

However, to be fair, this fighting force, a militia in all but official name, had perhaps the strongest fighter in the kingdom – Lucien Arc.

The happily married man and father of eight kids had been a seemingly unstoppable force, having charged ahead almost gleefully each and every time to crush the Grimm that had tried to wipe out the city that he's long since called home.

And each and every time he charged forward, more and more people that made up this fighting force were eagerly joining him, his strength and cheerfully determined disposition inspiring them to action.

Even when the White Fang, of all groups, had suddenly begun making an appearance alongside the Grimm in an obvious attempt to overthrow the city, Lucien and his allies had been quick to drive them back, their combined strength and overall morale allowing them to overcome the stunned troops of the terrorist organization.

This had been mainly due to Lucien's sheer strength and skill.

However, as of more than a dozen or so minutes ago, said strength and skill alongside most of the militia had started to be directed by just one person.

And said person spoke up once more.

"Dear, they're going to try flanking you from your five o'clock!"

This person was none other than Marguerite Arc nee D'Eon, loving wife to Lucien and mother to eight children.

"Got it!" Lucien yelled out in response, having heard his wife's cry even from this distance. He immediately spun and backhanded one White Fang troop that absolutely no one envied in that instant, having tried to stab the man from his side.

Seeing this, Marguerite felt herself more at ease before raising her binoculars once more and surveying the field before her and the others. "Earth Worms approaching! Make sure to watch the ground! Get ready to throw those bombs!"

Once more, people were quick to obey, those closest to the approaching Earth Worms moving into attacking position. Using a combination of Dust and other easily found materials, special bombs had been made that packed enough 'oomph' to do some serious damage to just about any Grimm that tried anything funny.

This was something that had been the woman's idea and many had cheered at how quick the bombs could be made, with more than a dozen people staying well away from the frontlines to focus on making more bombs for use.

Marguerite cut for a stunning figure as she stood atop a nearby structure that had been partially collapsed during the battle so far, her nickname of 4B – Brilliant, Blonde, Busty and Beautiful – being quite an apt description of the woman. Even when dressed in the same simple kind of clothes that all other Vacuoans wore, she certainly lived up to her nickname with smooth and golden blond hair that traveled down her entire back contrasting with her fair skin that seemed unblemished by her years spent in Vacuo's harsh weather. With youthful and elegant features that would look perfectly at place on a queen, it was hard for people even now to believe that she was just a year younger than her husband. And of course, there was her figure, which had earned her plenty of lustful and admiring gazes from many people over the years, even those who knew she was happily married.

Having been born to a wealthy and overall affluent family that consisted of bankers and artists of various fields, Marguerite made for a stunning combination of business/financial acuity and artistic ability. It was thanks to her that her children all knew how to dance and in her son's case even how to play the guitar, though none of them had quite inherited her talent for singing.

It was this combination that had earned her the affection and admiration of virtually everyone in this city when she and her husband had become so involved in the Land Restoration Project, her know-how having allowed everyone involved to get the most out of everything for such comparatively little cost.

And it was now this keen eye for materials and more that allowed her to watch the battlefield and make the most out of what she saw, the woman crying out orders and warnings that all were quick to take note of.

"So how are things on the other front?" she then asked of the people beside her. As she had no combat ability of her own, several people had been asked by Lucien to provide his wife some protection, something that these people had agreed to without any hassle.

"So far so good, but ever since those White Fang shitbags started showing up, the Grimm have slowly started circling around to attack from the other sides!" one of them said, having her own pair of binoculars to survey things from afar.

Marguerite hummed, almost peacefully despite the situation. Truly, nerves of steel. She held only the slightest concern for her children, as was expected of any good parent, but it was offset considerably by her confidence and overall faith in their ability to keep themselves safe. Most of her daughters may not exactly be the best fighters around, but her husband had tried to teach them all some self-defense anyways, which they all took to with varying levels of ease.

And besides, most of them were all safe within the bunker that many others had taken shelter in for now. It'd be up to her, Lucien and the others out here to ensure that the Grimm and White Fang stay well away from that bunker.

So to this end, she thought long and hard about what to do. With her husband currently busy on this end, there were only so many others that could be called upon to reliably defend the city and its people on those other fronts.

Not unless they had a way of bringing in some serious firepower…

"Ah!" Suddenly, an idea came to mind. "Do we still have that old blasting equipment?"

Due to the geography of the land, there were plenty of settlements that had failed to fully blossom and had ended up being abandoned for one reason or another. And back in the day, before the Land Restoration Project had taken off, some people in this city would head out and blast those abandoned settlements with some specialized equipment in order to salvage whatever was left for either personal use or to sell off for some decent lien.

But since then, this equipment has gone unused.

And Marguerite could now see her friends look at her with an almost evil eye. "4B," one of them began. "I really do like the way you think."

She couldn't help but laugh a little. "I aim to please," she joked.

As she began to actually explain the specifics of what she had in mind with the old blasting equipment, she took note of just how many of the people gathered here smirked with outright glee. And it proved to be almost infectious for she could feel herself smile too.

Those Grimm on the other fronts had no idea what was about to hit him.

* * *

Tenebrous went on the offensive with much more power than it had ever deigned necessary before. This was because it now actually was necessary to use more of the fractional power it still had after all these years.

And unfortunately, it wasn't doing as much as good as it would have liked, with Salem once more managing to defend against its powerful kick with those wings of hers, which she proved capable of manipulating in all sorts of ways as they bent at an odd angle to protect her otherwise exposed back.

Once more, its strike managed to damage the wings in and of themselves, but not enough to fully break through them. However, its blow still proved strong enough to knock Salem forward nonetheless, which counted for something.

Of that, it was completely sure of as Ozpin and Qrow launched their own attacks as a follow up.

Ozpin thrust his cane forward multiple times as if trying to impale Salem, yet against the woman in question, said blows merely struck her with immense force rather than tear through her.

As for Qrow, just as Salem looked ready to soldier through Ozpin's barrage and attack him, the black-haired man blasted an aura enhanced round directly into her exposed face, particularly her eyes.

When Salem cried out in surprise and pain, Ozpin ceased his thrusts and proceeded to strike her directly on the side of her knees.

And that was when Tenebrous saw fit to attack as well, jumping and landing directly on top of Salem with all the strength it could muster into this. The ground cracked and broke apart as its own weight and strength forced Salem all but practically underground, while Ozpin and Qrow leapt back.

Quickly jumping off of Salem, Tenebrous prepared to grab her and hoist her up, only to jump back even more when several explosions went off in its face.

The Power let out a hiss of genuine surprise. Although Salem was triggering these explosions the exact same way as before, it seems like she was enhancing the explosions themselves somehow, through her aura. As a result, said attacks were now capable of damaging its current form considerably.

That Salem was now capable of actually hurting it just went show how much stronger the Mind had become so suddenly.

Then, just as it finished jumping back, a barrier formed around its entire form, suddenly shrinking so that it was ultimately forced into a more ball-like position before the barrier was then hoisted up into the air and thrown.

As it got thrown with tremendous force and speed, Tenebrous was still able to take note of how the others now rushed to attack Salem.

Leading the charge was none other than Amber, her makeshift weapon in hand while that black-haired woman and Glynda were running directly by her side. Oobleck and Peter Port were trailing not so far behind the three women, clearly intending to follow up whatever assault they had in mind.

As it continued to go flying, Tenebrous looked and 'felt' for its Apostle and found Jaune not even a split second later, seemingly in great pain as he hunched over, more than a dozen meters away from the others.

Seeing this, Tenebrous tensed its entire form and forced the entire barrier constricting it to shudder and finally break.

Landing gracefully on its feet, Tenebrous chose to turn away from the fighting – though it could certainly hear it going on still – and instead focus on its Apostle.

Jaune didn't even seem to notice its presence despite how close the two of them conveniently were, a sign of how much agony the blond must be in.

And said agony was evident to any that were around to look.

Parts of Jaune's entire body were literally peeling and disintegrating away, revealing beneath the clothing and skin and muscle tissue and even the bones a near blinding light blue light – his very aura itself.

Right now, Jaune's physical form consisted primarily of his torso, his neck and head, and parts of his limbs, but his feet and hands were now outright gone with his own aura now simply shaped like the missing parts to compensate. Chunks of his thighs and calves as well as his shoulders and arms were gone as well, his aura just barely conforming to the missing pieces' general shape. Even the parts of him that were still intact were just barely holding on, his veins visible and his own blood seeming to just boil away.

The sight would undoubtedly be enough to make anyone watching retch in horror and extreme sympathy for the young man. Even Tenebrous, still quite new to many emotions, couldn't help but freeze at this sight, concern for its Apostle filling it.

And yet, an odd and almost contradictory sense of anticipation and even elation filled the god's very being.

" **Jaune…"** It began slowly, not quite sure the Apostle could even hear it through the pain. **"Your ascension is progressing steadily. Will you be able to hold on until the end?"**

For that is what this was – Jaune's ascension.

The whole point of said ascension was to fully unlock the young man's aura, something that his use of his semblance now triggered. But as was clearly obvious, his body simply wasn't tough enough to fully endure the process, resulting in this current situation. Even with all the strengthening he's undergone, Jaune may very well not be able to endure, a testament to just how much power he had within him.

Or rather, his body wouldn't endure. The ascension in and of itself would be completed, of that there was no doubt. However, the idea had always been to ensure Jaune's physical body would be capable of surviving the process so that the young man could still afford to live a semi-normal life afterwards as long as he tried to do so.

So far… it didn't seem like that would happen – his entire body was falling apart on an atomic level bit by bit.

But despite this, Jaune seemed to force his way through the pain just enough to turn and almost look at Tenebrous despite his 'blindness.' And then the Apostle managed to flash him a small smile, indicating that he had indeed heard its words. "Honestly… I don't know," he said in response to its query.

At that exact second, the sounds of battle seemed to intensify even more, causing Tenebrous to turn in time to see everyone gathering around Salem, launching one attack after another in unison. They were forcing her back… and yet, the woman valiantly soldiered on, a barrier in place to defend herself while she simultaneously launched her own physical blows, her wings having morphed into tendrils in which to try slamming her foes down.

Overhead, Tenebrous could then hear some of Atlas' ships fly past them all and head straight for the mountains off in the distance, their trail bringing to Tenebrous' attention the many Grimm that now peeked over the horizon.

It then turned its attention back to Jaune when it heard its Apostle finally stand up. "But right now, I have to force myself to hold on." He appeared to look towards Salem with a fierce gaze. "Come on, Tenebrous. If my body ends up giving out for good, then it's going to do so with a bang."

Tenebrous suddenly found itself making a noise it never had expected itself to make: a chuckle. It was mild and barely lasted a second or two, but it had definitely been a genuine chuckle. **"Very well. Let's do just that."**

Jaune nodded, smiling as he then took up a starting stance. Tenebrous mimicked his action.

Both of them, god and Apostle, looked ahead as if looking towards the future together. And right now, that 'future' consisted of Salem, who was now beginning to push back hard against all those that had gathered against her.

One of her tendrils lashed out harshly enough to finally wound Peter's massive form, its sharp sides finally piercing through his aura and flesh well enough to leave a large gash on the left side of his stomach as it knocked him away. Another slammed harshly against Glynda, nearly piercing right through her and likely would've done so if not for her blocking. Even then, it sent her flying.

Another tendril had wrapped itself around Qrow and his sister, threatening to crush them before the two could transform and take flight. Oobleck was trapped within a spherical barrier of stone that then began to quickly sink into the ground while Ozpin finally found himself caught as one tendril thinned and wrapped itself around his cane and arm just as he'd launched finally strike at Salem.

Vale's greatest warriors were now in a bad situation.

And it was now that Tenebrous and its Apostle sought to correct this.

They could see it on Salem's face. The woman looked pleased, outright delighted even as the ones that had been pestering her more than hurting her were finally being subdued in rapid succession.

Her guard was now down.

And so this was when they struck.

Focusing all their strength into their legs, Tenebrous and Jaune kicked off the ground in perfect synchronization. They ran forward as fast as they could go, easily surpassing the speed of lightning by a landslide. The very ground beneath their feet seemed to rupture as they charged forth.

Salem didn't know what hit her as they reached her all but instantly, the two launching their attacks simultaneously.

Tenebrous' left fist found itself buried in Salem's liver and pelvis while Jaune had struck her directly in the face with his right knee. The combined force of their blows, containing all their strength and backed by their immense momentum, proved to be more than enough to carry all three of them away instantaneously.

The tendrils that had been pinning down their allies ceased to do so as the three went careening through the air over a distance of _miles_.

A strange glass-like shattering sound alerted Tenebrous to something going on and when it looked up, it was to see that the knee Jaune had struck with simply disappearing, replaced by aura even as he kept said knee practically buried in Salem's face.

Their combined strike had certainly caught the woman by surprise, but now she was recovering, letting out an indignant cry as they all hit the ground, the very space around them spasming before the two of them were blown right off her.

As Tenebrous flipped and landed on its feet, it turned to look at Jaune, who just barely managed to do the same. And it immediately took note of what state the young man was in.

It would seem that the additional stress he'd placed on his body by matching Tenebrous in speed and strength had resulted in more of his body to all but disappear in the process. It'd only been his attacking knee that had so audibly disintegrated a split second ago.

As of now, Jaune was more akin to a being of pure aura than he was human. Only his face and parts of his torso still remained… but soon, Tenebrous was certain that even those would cease to be.

It was a saddening sight, to be sure, but with most of his body now gone and his own aura compensating for it in the most ridiculous of ways, whatever pain he'd been going through now seems to be no longer bothering him without a body to feel it with.

As such, Jaune wasted no time in immediately going on the offensive once more, blitzing forward at an even greater speed than what he's demonstrated thus far.

Seeing its Apostle dash forward once more, Tenebrous saw no reason for it to allow its concern from before bother it any longer.

First to deal with Salem. Then it can afford to worry over Jaune.

* * *

Salem gritted her teeth in growing rage. She certainly should have seen that coming, but even then she doubted if that had been a strike she could have reacted to in time.

That said, she could certainly react to this upcoming blow.

Even as she continued to stand up, Jaune Arc was already trying to blitz her again and with a speed far greater than anything the other pests had demonstrated thus far. It even now began to exceed Ozpin's time-enhanced speed, but unlike the simultaneous blows just a microsecond ago, this was one she could definitely react to.

And thus, she reacted.

First, she created a several-layered barrier that she knew would only slow Jaune down, after which she promptly used her semblance to condense all the matter around her into a sort of invisible cannon that she then fired at the young man.

It hit him just as he smashed through most of her barrier's layers and she watched as he got blasted off several meters into the distance.

She took this slight reprieve to wipe away the blood that Jaune's knee strike had drawn, just in time to spot the Power now transform its right arm into a fog-like form to blast forward.

She manipulated her barrier's remaining layers into effectively dispersing the attack, but it was at this exact moment that the Power fully transformed itself into a fog of darkness that swiftly circled around her – and her barrier had only been made to protect her from the front.

"Urgh!" She twisted in place, using the additional mass that formed from her lower half to spin her around faster in order to keep track of her foe.

She fully turned just in the nick of time, seeing the Power smash right into her and envelop her within itself.

She howled in frustration.

As irritating as Ozpin and his so-called comrades had been, she'd still held a certain advantage over them. Namely, that if they had remained still just long enough and close enough to her, she could have instantly killed them by scattering them on an atomic level. While they certainly hadn't done so, it was still a situational advantage that she could claim to have.

But against the Power, a god whose form wasn't made of matter, such an advantage was gone and now here she was, being suffocated by its fog-like form as the air was being forcibly drawn right out of her.

It was trying to knock her unconscious, it would seem and through a rather unusual method.

But while she couldn't directly affect it with her semblance, she still had ways of countering.

Forming an air bubble around her entire head, she then forced it to expand until it began to push back against the god's fog form.

Getting air back into her lungs with a deep and hearty breath, Salem then willed space itself to create several more little 'bubbles' within the Power's form, trapping chunks of it within themselves.

She then forced the bubbles to go flying well away from her, carrying these parts of the god's form in the hopes that it would keep it from immediately resuming its physical form.

This didn't seem to deter it from manipulating what remained of itself into trying to stab her in the gut by way of transforming its remaining essence into a sharp blade. She could have stopped it with her bare hands, her physical strength now great enough to do so, but that wouldn't stop it from simply extending itself and thus she opted to swerve out of the way instead…

…And directly into the path of Jaune Arc, who'd returned from the impromptu flight she'd sent him on just now.

He spun in midair and delivered an axe-kick that would've likely fractured her skull had she not manipulated her tendrils into molding into a thick shield that protected her entire head and back.

Even then, she could feel her entire body shudder from the sheer power behind the attack. It would seem that the more time that passed by, the stronger and faster Jaune Arc seemed to become.

"You just keep getting more annoying by the second!" she growled out. She then used her semblance to change her shield styled mass a bit, causing it to reach out and ensare Jaune's offending foot just before he could leap away.

With him now trapped for a second, Salem then created a massive invisible wall that then shunted itself forward in order to keep the Power's fog form at bay for an additional few seconds.

It was now that she sneered darkly.

Now more than ever was the time to use that 'advantage' of hers.

So she reached out with her semblance in order to grab hold of Jaune's remaining flesh… only to 'feel' nothing there.

Nothing there at all.

Such a lack of sensation was enough to make her eyes widen in complete shock. "What…?!"

So shocked was she that when Jaune broke free of her hold and landed before her, she scarcely reacted.

And instead all she could do was look upon him.

His entire form… it was no longer one of flesh. Now it was entirely made up of aura, aura so bright that it was practically blinding and yet she couldn't bring herself to look away.

The one advantage she'd had against him was now gone.

"Is this how your ascension was to be?!" she couldn't help but mutter in a mixture of confusion and rage.

Rather than answer her question with words, her foe opted to answer another way.

With his fist.

Still feeling stupefied, Salem barely even tried to dodge.

And so, Jaune's 'fist' slammed directly into her face.

* * *

If anyone were to ever ask him to envision a day like this years ago, he'd have been unable to. Hell, even now, it just felt surreal to him despite living in this moment.

Jaune honestly had no words to describe what was going on anymore. Ever since he activated his semblance, his body had been in indescribable pain and his ever-increasing power had been difficult to adapt to. Yet not so long after he and the others had begun fighting Salem in earnest, he'd began to acclimate to his increasing power with more and more ease, but at the cost of greater pain as his body ripped itself apart.

Then at some point, the pain ceased to be in certain parts of his body and it really hadn't been until he and Tenebrous had knocked Salem away from the others and Vale by extension that he'd really started to become aware of what was going on with his body.

It had been literally breaking up and ceasing to be, his own aura somehow molding itself to match up with what little had remained of his very flesh.

And just a second ago, when Salem had knocked him away in order to combat Tenebrous, the attack combined with his own aura seemingly wanting to finish the job had resulted in what little had remained of his physical self to outright burst apart, leaving behind nothing save for his own aura and consciousness.

Jaune couldn't even begin to try analyzing how this even worked anymore. The mere fact that his very mind was still intact despite no longer retaining any bit of flesh was outrageous in more ways than one. That his own aura was somehow in the very same shape of his now former body and didn't simply disperse with every movement he made was even more ludicrous.

He had no eyes with which to see, not even aura anymore and yet he could still 'see' Salem's violently warping aura. If he tried, he could even begin to see in the conventional sense once more, but only barely.

He had no ears with which to hear, yet he'd still been able to hear Salem's indignant words.

He had no nerves or flesh, so being able to physically feel anything should be completely impossible and yet he could feel his 'fist' slam directly into a shocked Salem's face, feel her nose break under the force.

Again, all of this should be completely impossible yet it was very much the opposite.

He'd known from the start, when Tenebrous had first explained to him everything, that his ascension would result in some truly crazy things, but this exceeded anything he'd ever thought of.

And as crazy as all this is, as crazier as things were sure to somehow become, he found his heart – figuratively speaking, of course – welcoming all this with open arms.

His punch knocked Salem back as if she weighed nothing. And as she went skidding across the ground, Jaune felt his very consciousness expand before condensing and then sharpen itself somehow to a razor-sharp point.

Willpower.

No brain or nerves left to direct his actions, just pure willpower. As he took in the results of his first blow in this form, Jaune began to feel an odd freedom, liberation even, that he'd never felt before.

And it was enough to push back any other feelings of shock and awe he had right now, all but outright compelling him to continue.

No more reacting, only action.

And action is exactly what he took.

Seeing the odd state Tenebrous had been reduced to, Jaune utilized his vastly increased speed to immediately track down the bubbles that Salem had contained Tenebrous' essence in while the woman was still down, smashing through them with ease and releasing the parts of his friend that had been contained within.

Immediately after doing so, Jaune turned back and redirected all his focus on Salem while his friend began to hastily reform.

He didn't even give Salem the time to even _begin_ to get back up. He slammed into her back like a comet, stomping down with all the power he could muster.

But he didn't stop there, not even for a second.

One blow after the next, he all but buried the woman under a veritable barrage of attacks as she ended up deeper and deeper within the ground while the forming crater continued to grow in size.

A small part of him worried over killing her, since that would cause all the Grimm to go berserk. But this part of him was shushed hastily as he knew that it would take more than just some handful of attacks to take her down for good.

Until she lost consciousness, he would not stop.

And then… he stopped. Not because he wanted to, however, but rather Salem finally retaliated. She let first let out a scream of absolute rage before letting loose some sort of barely visible shockwave that blew him off her easily.

The instant this occurred, Jaune simply thought to himself that he needed to stop himself from flying off and suddenly enough his 'body' did just that, stopping in midair.

His surprise was borderline hilarious in nature – after all, was it not the dream of every kid to be able to simply fly? And yet, here he was levitating in place for a split second before actually flying of some unconscious accord.

Naturally, he flew right back at Salem, bolting at her like a streak of light, just not quite as fast as actual light.

Alas, by the time he was about to reach her, she was already up and lashing out just as violently as he'd assaulted her, throwing several boulders formed from the air itself directly at him.

Unable to stop in time, Jaune instead opted to merely alter his flight path, trying to fly under the boulders.

Alas, he wasn't quite fast enough on the draw to accomplish this and ended up crushed beneath them all as a result, the boulders slamming into him at speeds comparable to his own. Then before he could react to even this much, the ground he was smashed into suddenly and quite violently rose up until he knew he was directly parallel to Salem's now outstretched hands.

"Little gnat!" she roared.

The next thing he knew, a wave of pure darkness mixed with air blasted him with a level of power exceeding his own as of now.

It slammed into him with a deafening impact and in the instant that followed, he was distinctly aware of the attack seemed to be drilling through his very form… until sure enough, that's exactly the blast accomplished, piercing through him completely with enough violent force to make his own 'body' partially disperse.

As this occurred, an oddity in his vision began to occur, the world around him starting to come more into focus than ever before even as parts of him seemed to just cease existing.

By all rights, if this were anyone else in his shoes, such an attack would definitely be a fatal one. however, to him as he is now, it was less of a fatal blow and something more akin to a wake-up call of sorts.

" _That's right…"_ he muttered despite not having a mouth with which to speak. His words came out sounding quite different as a result, distorted in a way that no description could do any real justice to.

His entire 'body' as it is now is nothing but aura. And aura was pure energy. It couldn't be created nor destroyed, therefore a 'wound' of this level…!

Letting out a grunt, or at least what he thought sounded like a grunt, he focused hard and the parts of him that were dispersed by Salem's attack swiftly began to reform even as he flew forward.

"What?!" Salem outright shrieked. It was something he'll reluctantly admit he took a bit of pleasure in, to know he could now rattle her so damned much.

Of course, it helped that she dropped her guard a bit too. Something he took advantage of by attempting to blitz her from the side, just right outside of her periphery vision.

As it turned out, though, Salem's guard hadn't dropped _that_ much, swatting him aside with one of her wings just before he could extend a finger out to poke in her right eye.

Just as he was swatted away, he felt rather than saw Salem launch a dozen more attacks, each of them connecting before he could even try to make a recovery.

But that was when Tenebrous finally came back into the fold, the god assuming its physical form in order to attack Salem from behind. And unlike Jaune just now, Tenebrous succeeded in hitting Salem as the Power stomped harshly on the back of Salem's knees.

This certainly grabbed Salem's attention for she ceased her attacks in order to guard against Tenebrous' follow-up attack – a mighty chop that would've broken her in two had she not put up a barrier at the last possible microsecond.

Now free from her assault, however, Jaune wasn't about to let her make a recovery of her own.

The mere fact that she was capable of going up against either of them with this level of success demonstrated just how much power she really had even if her skill was still lacking. Had the fight earlier alongside the others gone on, it would've only been a matter of time until the sheer power difference resulted in their deaths.

This had been why he'd intentionally slammed into her alongside Tenebrous that hard earlier – he'd wanted to try taking the fight elsewhere, even if only for a while. Just because casualties would be unavoidable didn't mean he shouldn't try to prevent them anyways. And with the Grimm no doubt ready to keep on coming, Vale would need its powerful defenders to push them back.

Of course, to this same token, that meant it was going to be up to him and his friend to keep Salem at bay should knocking her out prove that difficult.

But even with that said, it wasn't as if he had a way of checking in with Ozpin and Glynda and the others to make sure that they understood this change in the situation. And it's not like he could simply rocket off to go make sure.

So it was with all this in mind that he directed as much of his own energies – quite literally, he now supposed – into his next attack, which came in the form of a flying kick that connected with the side of Salem's neck while she was still focused on Tenebrous.

Normally, a flying kick in the middle of a battle was a pretty stupid move even if his foe's attention was elsewhere. But given that his new form allowed for flight and some impressive acceleration, he took the risk of being blocked or defended against in order to keep the pressure on Salem. Giving her even a microsecond of breathing was all she needed to disengage and attack from somewhat afar.

He then pulled himself close and deliver a punch to her jaw before then swinging the elbow of his other 'arm' and smacking her with it across the nose.

That second blow drew blood, which he only now noticed was turning black. And something about the sight of this was enough to stir something within him.

He and Tenebrous had to get her further away from Vale.

Thankfully, his friend in question seemed to share this same thought for when he backed off enough to throw an uppercut at Salem, Tenebrous did the same.

Their fists collided with Salem's gut and launched her westwards at breakneck speeds. They both leapt after her. Jaune, thanks to his newfound ability of flight and still increasing speed and might, was able to stay ahead of Tenebrous initially until the god formed wings to take proper flight.

Their combined attack had sent her flying closer to the mountains. And it was only as they reached flew even higher in pursuit of her that they both finally took note of what was going on there.

" _W-What in the-?!"_

For a second, Jaune wondered if his vision still wasn't exactly back yet. For he could make out, if only barely, the sight of some of Atlas' ships flying around shooting down some of the flying Grimm.

However, it wasn't just that that he was seeing.

There were two massive forms swiftly approaching, blotting out the sun above as they approached. It wasn't long at all before the Atlas ships ceased what they were doing and quickly began to beat a retreat. Jaune couldn't blame them; they simply didn't have the firepower necessary to take down even one of those things let alone both.

Dragons. That was really the only description that came to mind that suited these things.

" **Wyverns…"** Tenebrous then muttered, as if sensing his unasked question. There was a note of concern there in the Power's voice as he spoke.

It was enough to set Jaune on edge even as they kept on flying towards Salem.

It wasn't until a split second later that Jaune then realized something else – Salem was no longer simply careening through the air from their punch. She'd recovered in mid-flight and had spread her own wings so that she could fly just like they were doing.

And she was heading directly for the Wyverns. They seemed to be heading for her too.

The very same bad feeling from earlier assaulted Jaune once more.

" _Oh…shit!"_

He accelerated as much as was possible, pushing his speed to its ever-increasing limit.

He was only vaguely aware of Tenebrous flying faster in order to keep pace with him. He was only vaguely aware of the Atlas ships now passing practically right by him and his friend as they clearly tried to get away. He was only vaguely aware of the Grimm traveling in between the mountains below all seemed to now be converging in one spot, directly below where the Wyverns were now beginning to descend.

The only thing he was truly aware of Salem finally reaching the Wyverns, landing atop one of their heads.

Even from this distance, her laughter was nothing short of haunting.

By the time he and Tenebrous had managed to reach the general vicinity a split second later, the Wyvern's form was already beginning to break down and be absorbed by the woman.

* * *

Ren had never been much of a talker, preferring silence to noise most often. But now was one of the few times he wished to fill the quiet with some kind of noise.

Alas, he struggled to do so.

Instead, all he could do was merely massage his right arm, said limb bleeding rather profusely from a dangerous graze from the transformed Adam Taurus.

Said man – monster? – was on his back, looking directly up at the sky. His breath, loud and raspy, grew ragged and his chest rose and fell ever more slowly.

The fight, if it could even be called that, with the transformed man had been extremely brief yet no less taxing. It wouldn't have been an overstatement to call it a desperate struggle just to stay alive. There'd been no real fighting back against Adam Taurus' new form, merely an attempt to remain in one piece against his unfettered rampage.

Said rampage had come to an end when that silver light, seeming to come from somewhere so close by, had appeared, said light having seemed to just burn the transformed man with a terrifying ease.

The result was now lying before him and the others, the silver light having pretty much left the Faunus on the verge of death.

…And from this, there'd be no recovery from.

Already, parts of Adam Taurus' transformed body were beginning to dissipate, as if he were like any other Grimm. Given his current appearance, it made an odd sort of sense.

That didn't mean this was any easier to watch.

Blake, despite having been the focus of the transformed man's vicious assault, stood over the dying man's form, her eyes staring at him so sorrowfully. Not once did she seem to notice the wounds she'd sustained, her entire body covered in dirt and bruised all over, cuts and gashes here and there that were thankfully not fatal but certainly not something to be ignored for too long.

"Adam…" she whispered.

From beside him, Ren noticed how Weiss, ragged and out of breath and looking as if she'd been used as a punching bag for a whole day, tightened her grip at the sight of her teammate. It was clear that she wanted to walk up to Blake and tell her everything was alright, but it would obviously be a complete lie.

And Ren had the feeling that as the Schnee heiress, Weiss wouldn't like lying much for any reason anyways.

He nudged her. "…You alright?"

Weiss stared back at him blankly, assessing his own moderate injuries before smiling bitterly. "I'm alive. Counts for something, I suppose." She looked back at Blake and the dying Adam Taurus before then shifting her gaze to the other White Fang members. Unlike the three of them, the remaining troops from before had all been knocked out one way or another during the brief struggle for survival. "…You'd think surviving such a thing would be a moment for joy. But looking at this just makes me feel so very sad…"

Ren could only nod in agreement.

Then, slowly it must be said, he approached Blake. As he did so, the tired and closing eyes of Adam suddenly opened as wide as was possible, focusing on him. Even now as he died, it seemed that the Faunus had quite a lot of hate in him that was waiting to be expressed. Alas, he lacked the power to act on it or even sustain it for very long. A second later, his smoldering gaze gave way to a look of pitiful fatigue.

As he stopped by Blake's side, he looked to see her and Adam sharing a look with one another that he couldn't even begin to decipher. He could certainly see and even feel the emotion there to an extent – the sorrow, the regrets, and the hurt as well on both sides. But beyond that, nothing else.

No words were spoken between the two as the man finally died, having become so completely like a Grimm that his entire form dissipated right after taking one final breath. The only thing that remained was his blade, which had returned to normal immediately thereafter.

Hesitantly, seeing as Blake still just stood there, Ren bent down tiredly and picked it up. He couldn't help gingerly test the weight of it before turning to Blake, whose gaze followed the sword.

"Blake, I-," Ren began, only to be cut off.

"He was a monster," Blake whispered. "I see now that he'd always really been that way before… _this_ , whatever this is, had happened to him…"

There was a brief pause after she spoke before doing so again. "But even then, a part of him can't help but miss him now. He may have hated all others and acted on it in ways that could never be repented for… but even then…"

This time when she trailed off, she didn't seem keen on continuing. Nonetheless, Ren got the message even if it did feel like she had been saying that more to herself rather than to him or Weiss, who now approached them.

A victim of circumstances, in other words. He was well aware of the kind of discrimination and abuse Faunus can experience. Adam must have been one such unfortunate soul, whose resulting anger had led him to becoming the person he was at the end here.

A rather saddening thing, to be sure, but Ren was of the opinion that the man's circumstances didn't excuse let alone justify his actions. And he was certain Blake felt the same way too though neither of them felt like saying so aloud.

In any case, he handed her the blade. "For whatever it's worth, I really do wish that things had turned out differently. For everyone."

Blake could only nod.

"Come on…" Weiss now said gently. She motioned elsewhere, specifically to where the silver light had come from. "Let's go find the others."

"What about them?" Blake asked softly, motioning to the White Fang troops that were either dead or unconscious sprawled all throughout the area.

"…They're not going to be getting back up anytime soon. And even if they do, they'll be too beat up to do us much harm. Although the same could be said about us as well," Weiss replied calmly. "Let's go. Once we meet back up with the others, we can come back and round them up."

Blake once again could only nod, her grip on her fallen former friend's blade tightening with renewed purpose, even if said purpose was rather minor as of now.

Ren, for his part, couldn't help but smile a little wanly at this. So much was happening so fast yet here one of his friends was, already resolving herself to move on as needed. While not exactly the healthiest thing one can do for their emotional well-being, it was a bit of a step in the right direction, if nothing.

And besides, right now, they really did need to go check on the others now that there seemed to be a genuine lull in the action for the time being. Plus, they all needed to get bandaged up before more Grimm will inevitably come.

But just before he and the two girls can proceed onwards, they all ended up suddenly freezing in place.

The fight-or-flight response that always accompanied every single life or death scenario had kicked into overdrive for the three of them in that instant and the latter response had won out, forcing them all to freeze like deer in the headlights.

And it wasn't until a split second thereafter that what appeared to be the source of such a response from them made itself known in its own special way.

A wail. Or at least, something that sounded like a wail.

The voice of a woman. Or at least, this was the closest approximation they could unconsciously make.

If there was at least one thing Ren and the other two could be certain of, it is that the sudden wail was unlike anything they had ever heard before.

It was impossibly loud and cacophonic, reaching them from a distance that couldn't be ascertained at this moment, the sound piercing down to the very core of their beings. The wail, so unlike any sound a human could ever be capable of producing, instilled in them a primal level of fear that nearly resulted in their bowels losing control.

Ren was ultimately the first one to turn around, simultaneously wishing and not wishing to see what could possibly be the source of such a sound that continued to drag on.

The only reason the R of team JNPR was even able to move at all right now was because of how quickly the very sky above them all began to darken as the wail slowly ceased.

And what he saw left his eyes wide and caused his heart to start beating so much faster than ever before.

"W-What in the world?!" the normally quiet teen cried out.

The entire sky may be in the process of darkening over all of Vale and Beacon, but it would seem that it was an area somewhere well past the city's walls that appeared to be the darkest of all.

Absolutely nothing over there could be seen – the darkness was just too thick, not even allowing the slightest bit of light to pierce it.

But what grabbed Ren's attention – and no doubt the attention of everyone else by now, Ren vaguely thought – was what appeared to be inexplicably poking out from within that otherwise impenetrable darkness -.

Eyes. So many eyes, red in color and containing within them all a gleam of hatred that began to almost literally color over everything they observed.

Then the many eyes, all but innumerable, quickly began to shrink in number. No, more like the eyes seemed to begin merging into one simple pair that then ceased to be no longer visible from this distance.

But there was no mistaking the dark sense of triumph that had been within those eyes before they vanished.

And just as they vanished from sight, the darkness started to swell and grow.

And the darkness then began its approach towards the city.

* * *

 **And that's that for this one! Not going to lie, a part of me wasn't too satisfied with how Jaune's section was handled, but no matter how many times I rewrote it, nothing was really flowing the way I was envisioning. I'm pretty sure it's because I couldn't help but feel like his transitioning into his new form felt rushed, but alas I didn't want to put off said transition for another chapter or two lest I then end up feeling like I'm taking too long. Quite a dilemma, eh?**

 **Heh, well in any case, I suppose you can say this chapter truly marks the beginning of the end. Which is to say that the ending for this fic will approaching relatively soon. Depending on how I decide to break up what little left that I have planned, the epilogue could be popping up in about another three chapters, maybe even four at the most part. But do keep in mind that this is merely an estimate on my part, not a clad-iron guarantee. The only thing I can guarantee is that the ending is definitely soon.**

 **Man, that all said, hard to believe that this is the 47th chapter too. It's now comparable in chapter number and word quantity to my previous fanfic, ha ha ha. Makes me wonder if my future fics will be increasingly longer than this one or if I'll end up averaging out at around 50 chapters from now on. Whelp, only one way to find out!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	48. Chapter 48

Surprise! Here I am with chapter 48! Ha ha, bet you all didn't expect it to be this soon, eh?

Normally, I do one chapter for this fic and then do a chapter for my original novel before doing another chapter for this and so on and so on – I alternate between the two, to put it in far fewer words. But when I finished up chapter 47 for this fic and I started thinking about my novel's next chapter, I found myself at an impasse. In other words, writer's block and a pretty bad case of it too. I had a general idea of what I wanted to write, but no specifics let alone actual words came to mind when I attempted to write the novel's next chapter.

However, with this fic, I still had a pretty damn good idea on what I wanted to do until the end of it so I decided to capitalize on it while I still had the chance, hence this early chapter.

That said, with this chapter now out of the way, I will be working on my novel next and may even attempt to write two chapters for it as a way to make up for the sudden change in my self-imposed schedule. Maybe. I'm still thinking on that. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the 49th chapter to this fic may or may not take longer than usual to get out depending on whether or not I decide to write two chapters for my novel after this.

Well, that said, with this chapter, things will really be heating up following the ending of the previous one. I hope you'll enjoy how this one ultimately turned out.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 48

When Jaune and Tenebrous had tackled Salem well away from the city, Ozpin had felt more than a little tempted to give chase, to go and aid them against the woman he'd once called a friend so many decades ago.

But he was no fool – he knew the instant they did so just what it was that the god and Apostle duo had planned; they'd clearly meant to keep Salem busy by themselves while he and the others were to remain behind and defend the city.

To this end, Ozpin had spent the past few precious moments trying to gather up everyone else, all of whom were in varying states of good health following the rather short yet no less intense struggle against Salem.

And that had been precisely when everything came to a complete and utter standstill when a wail unlike anything he's ever heard made itself known.

It'd been beyond deafening, so powerful and charged with dark emotion that the very clouds above them _dispersed_ as a result as did the rest of the clouds that could be seen for miles.

Everyone had practically froze at such a nightmarish sound and sight, save for Ozpin himself, who instead felt compelled to turn at such a cacophonic and hellish sound.

And what he saw left him feeling more rattled than ever before. Not even when he'd bore witness to Salem's awakening as the Mind all those decades ago, when she'd butchered the townspeople and summoned the Grimm to slaughter the rest, had he ever felt so utterly shocked and terrified.

There, in the general direction of where Jaune and Tenebrous had knocked Salem in, was a massive and all-consuming darkness blooming upwards and devouring all that it seemed to touch.

The various Nevermores and Gryphons that could vaguely be seen flying above all seemed to be sucked into the forming vortex and didn't come back out. Dirt and entire pieces of the ground itself rose up and joined in. What little remained of the dispersed clouds above seemed to be sucked in as well.

Not even the very fabric of space itself seemed to be spared as a distortion began to occur for all of them to see, air and more bending in ways that was almost physically nauseating to look at for even a second.

Yet Ozpin couldn't tear himself away from the sight when dozens and then hundreds of eyes formed within the vortex of darkness, each and every one being that of the Grimm that then began to coalesce into one pair of massive eyes, a pair that felt all too familiar to him.

"Salem…!" he muttered hoarsely.

Just what had the woman done?! Just what had she done?!

His grip on his cane tightened so much that he was ultimately hurting himself. And yet so absorbed he was in seeing what was going on that the pain simply didn't register to his brain.

And any other sensations his body may be feeling further lost whatever hold they may have had on his mind when he then saw the now fading vortex doing something that scared him so much more than even before -.

-It began to head towards the city.

* * *

Tenebrous was not a being known to feel fear and yet in this instant, that is exactly what the Power felt. And how could it not? This was a situation far worse than anything it ever had imagined.

To think that Salem could use her semblance to so quickly merge with the Wyverns… it was unthinkable. Surely, such a semblance would have limitations and Tenebrous was most certain it had figured out what those limitations were moments into the battle against her.

But it seemed like when Salem had started to merge with those other Grimm earlier, the power boost she'd received had also extended to her semblance somehow.

And now… it's resulted in this… this _monstrosity._

The vortex of pure darkness that had enveloped Salem upon her merging had finally disappeared, revealing her newest form.

Following her merging with that first Wyvern, the woman had been very quick to then merge with the other one along with dozens if not hundreds of the Grimm that had been following them from the mountains.

And this showed through in her new size, easily dwarfing the mountains themselves by more than half their size. It was clear that a dragon was used as the main base for her new body, for she moved on all fours, her hands looking more akin to feet by now, malformed to such an extent that even using such a word was honestly being liberal. Her hind legs especially could no longer be called as such, possessing so much mass that seemed to jut outwards and twist continually in ways that would make anyone's eyes hurt by watching. Her torso, surprisingly, maintained a semi-humanoid shape and was completely nude, with the crotch area and her breasts covered by the same black and red mass that had now been a part of her ever since the first merging, now in the form of scales that had to be a dozen or so yards thick.

From her behind was a massive serpentine tail that was lashing out wildly, the sheer force it was unleashing so immense that the mountains behind her was leveled even when direct contact wasn't made. Wings that were almost half of her new size stood at attention, each 'feather' being larger than a house and looking almost metallic in design, with impossibly sharp talons at the very end of the wings.

But it was her face that drew Tenebrous' attention the most.

Something about still seemed human-like, if only in the general structure of it. But that was where such a comparison between her current self and old self ended. Her veins from before were naturally much large to accommodate her new size and pulsed visibly with a substance that couldn't be identified. It certainly wasn't blood anymore. Her mouth had developed what could only be called a Glasgow grin that extended halfway down the neck… and there were teeth there, so many teeth that lined the top and bottom of this 'incision.'

Her eyes possessed black sclera while the irises were completely red, no longer possessing pupils. Despite this, it was obvious that she could still see as well as before, for Tenebrous could feel Salem gazing upon it and Jaune, her malformed mouth twisting into a sneer that defied description.

And then Salem, now as a monstrosity far beyond humanity, began her trek forward.

Towards the city.

The instant this occurred, the stupor Tenebrous had found itself subjected to ceased and the god began to flap its makeshift wings faster, flying back in order to put enough distance between it and Salem to build up significant momentum.

But this proved difficult to do. Despite Salem moving quite slowly, she was simply so massive that the amount of ground she could cover simply by _craning her head forward_ was enough to make up for her slow speed.

Not only that, but it was forced to hastily dodge by flying low in to avoid Salem's casual movement of her head.

Normally, horns formed from the very sides of the head or the top, but this wasn't the case with Salem. No, for her, she had horns that formed from a sickening black and red growth directly by her eyes and extended upwards a bit before curving outwards, almost like some kind of bull. Due to the sheer size of them, had Tenebrous not taken evasive action, its entire physical form would've been dispersed almost on immediate impact.

Out of the corner of its eyes, it saw Jaune do the same, flying low and away from Salem's now titanic and draconic form before the Apostle's flight path then curved upwards.

Tenebrous followed suit and not a second too soon, for the ground started to be torn up and the resulting debris floated up.

Salem's presence was simply so immense now that when combined with her semblance, which had undoubtedly grown stronger too, it was enough to literally suck up all that was around her.

Such power was well beyond its vastly weakened self as of now. Indeed, as Salem now was, she was likely comparable to its previous self, back when it had only just begun to sacrifice its power to kickstart Jaune's aura and gradual awakening.

That meant that any and all attacks it could now deliver in its current state would likely have no effect upon Salem. The same could be said now for everyone else in the world. This included Jaune as he currently is too, though that would change still in time – after all, despite Jaune's current form as pure aura, he was still 'growing' and therefore had yet to fully complete his ascension.

Still… in order for him to do that… he'd need his body most likely.

Tenebrous was snapped out of its sudden musing when it noted Salem taking a deep breath, her chest expanding as she took in immense amounts of air. It was enough to nearly swallow it and Jaune whole, though they both managed to fly high enough to avoid such a fate.

Jaune then began to fly back down, heading directly for Salem's right eye. Tenebrous chose to follow its Apostle's lead, aiming for the left eye instead.

Together they flew at speeds surpassing lightning by a landslide, intending to try taking out her eyes. Surely, as tough as Salem now had to be, her eyes were still vulnerable, yes?

But alas, they didn't get to find out.

As fast as they both were, Salem was quicker in her actions.

With her head tilting up to look at them, she unleashed all that air she took in in the form of a primal roar that was so powerful that the rest of the world seemed to fall silent in response. Tenebrous and Jaune were blown away as if they weighed nothing, being blasted upwards well into orbit and almost further beyond within a second. All of the clouds across the entire kingdom of Vale were likewise dispersed from the force, with even the ground being visibly shattered and blasted in all directions for miles.

As high up as they now were, Tenebrous could look down at the world below and see the city they'd been defending up until now be nearly blown apart.

From beside it, it could hear Jaune let out a loud 'No!' and the Apostle was quick to immediately fly back down, undoubtedly heading for the city.

Well, whatever now remained of it, that is.

While Tenebrous, as it too flew back to the world below, was still able to make out the familiar auras of the combatants and the civilians hidden within the various underground bunkers, the city itself had been utterly devastated just like that.

The walls that had defended the city along with many of the buildings and even entire districts that had been within several miles of the walls had been completely levelled.

Tenebrous' mind boggled at the sight. To think this was the result merely from Salem roaring!

But amazingly, this display of power didn't worry the god that much compared to another observation that it then made.

As Salem continued her march forward, parts of the ground and air and even parts of the buildings from the city began to practically disintegrate, becoming almost mist-like in substance and it was all being sucked up by Salem's entire body. All of the Grimm that were still making their collective way from the mountain were also in the same boat, being broken down and absorbed just like the rest.

Salem was literally converting all matter around her and absorbing it. She was continually bolstering her already immense might!

With this being the case, this was truly not a time to be analyzing things any longer. Action was needed.

And unfortunately, it would seem like it and Jaune were the only ones that could do anything up close as of now – they were the only two entities not comprised of matter and therefore were immune to Salem's semblance. The same could not be said for anyone else, with Tenebrous looking down to the area outside the wall, where practically everyone was retreating.

Not all of them made it, their very forms breaking apart and disappearing into the chaotic mass known as Salem.

Such a sight instilled a desperate resolve in Tenebrous as it continued its flight back down and it altered its course so that it would smash into its foe from above. As for Jaune, it seemed like the Apostle was attempting to go for Salem's eyes again.

Time to give Jaune an opening then.

In what could only be described as a meteor move, Tenebrous flew faster than it ever has before in this form and impacted against the small of Salem's massive back with all the momentum it had mustered. It struck with enough force to level entire cities and even destroy islands.

And it barely fazed the monstrous Salem. If anything, all Tenebrous accomplished was essentially smashing itself against a substance that was far tougher than any known material in Remnant.

Letting out a sound of shock, it was then only vaguely aware of Jaune attempting to fly right into Salem's right eye from the side, just out of her periphery vision. But then Salem suddenly turned her head in the Apostle's direction quite swiftly and ended up thwacking Jaune aside like some gnat.

That was when an explosion suddenly occurred directly in Salem's face.

Getting rid of its own wings, Tenebrous now clung onto Salem's back as it then looked to see what had caused such an explosion.

There.

Just off in the distance, well above Vale and far enough away from Salem to avoid being affected by her semblance, was the command ship for the remaining Atlas fleet, general Ironwood's personal mobile fortress.

Surrounding it were the remaining ships that had retreated earlier and all of them were in a tight protective formation that now began to fire everything they had upon the monster that was all but literally at Vale's door.

Bullets and missiles were launched with reckless abandon at Salem, the transformed woman so large that missing was literally impossible.

The bullets, as they neared their gargantuan target, simply disintegrated upon getting within tens of meters of Salem while the missiles, due to being far larger and faster, remained just intact enough to actually hit her.

But in both cases, it was proving completely ineffective. Those missiles were powerful enough to take down even Goliaths without much trouble and against Salem, it didn't even seem to be so much as tickling her.

However.

It was certainly grabbing her attention and she craned her entire head in the fleet's direction.

A rumble seemed to occur throughout her entire body. Tenebrous could actually hear her lungs let out a great heave.

She was going to roar again.

Tenebrous couldn't let that happen. The fleet wouldn't survive, nor would anything else that lied in that direction.

It dashed along Salem's back, throwing punch after devastating punch at the flesh beneath it as it charged forth.

Each blow could destroy cities and crush entire mountain ranges, yet Tenebrous felt it do nothing of any notice against Salem.

Letting loose a genuine cry of indignation, Tenebrous then leapt and slammed with all the power it could muster into the very back of Salem's neck.

This time, it managed to budge the monstrous woman, but only barely.

In any case, it got her attention.

And Salem was quick to respond.

Another rumble occurred that immediately felt different from the first and Tenebrous saw what this meant for it as a split second later, beams of pure aura simply started to fire right out of Salem's entire body.

Many of the blasts were aiming right for it, forcing it to immediately take to the sky and start taking evasive action. Even then, it had to solidify its entire body more than ever before in an attempt to guard. But despite its best efforts, a multitude of the blasts struck it with such immense power that its entire physical form was reduced to pure fog.

It was then quick to restore itself, but as soon as it did, it was to the sight of the remaining blasts she'd fired heading directly for the city and the Atlas fleet.

What could only be described as a carpet bomb took place, the blasts levelling the entire half of the city that was furthest from Beacon academy while the rest of the blasts headed for the fleet.

Many were able to move out of the way, but just as many weren't so lucky – they were destroyed on immediate impact, barely even scrape remaining behind.

Tenebrous roared in genuine fury as did Jaune who was now back in the picture. Feeling its connection with Jaune, the Power followed after the boy, whose strength and speed were ever growing still.

This time, they flew below Salem and circled around before the two of them intentionally crashed into the knee joint of Salem's left hind leg.

They hit like a massive bullet just as the leg had been about to move and their combined might and momentum proved to be enough to make the knee buckle.

Salem let out a sound that might've been an 'urk?!' but it was too inhuman a sound to be able to tell. She then let out a terrifying hiss that signaled her counterattack and the duo was quick to try getting out of range of whatever she was going to do.

But sadly, not quick enough.

From the knee they'd struck, _hands_ of all things formed at a frightening speed and grabbed the two of them. Tenebrous and Jaune wasted no time struggling to break free and they proved to be much stronger than any individual hand, but for each one they broke out of, five more would form to take its place in an instant. Swiftly overwhelmed, the two of them were hefted by the hands and thrown towards the ground at an angle.

Specifically, they were thrown to the spot that Salem's other hind leg had just occupied.

And just as they were about to hit the earth, Salem stomped her foot down upon them.

* * *

Salem let out a sound that not even her own mind could recognize. She supposed it was meant to be glee, but there was no way to tell for real.

Ah…. What an incredible sensation this all was. To be one with so many of her precious Grimm and to start becoming one with all else…

Yes, this was it, this was it! Power unlike anything she'd ever felt before, power great enough to snuff out humanity all on her own!

No more pain, no more suffering, only her and her true friends! A world all for her and no others!

But… but!

It still wasn't enough.

It still simply wasn't enough.

This would not do just yet.

Ozpin.

That traitorous piece of shit and his equally pathetic 'comrades' have yet to suffer enough yet. For what had happened to her, simply snuffing him out and his so-called school so soon simply wouldn't do!

More, more, more! She had to hurt him and everyone else more!

But how to do so? Those Atlas bastards were still shooting her as if it'd actually accomplish anything, how insufferably annoying!

And the Power plus that damned Apostle, Jaune Arc! Even now when she so thoroughly eclipsed their might, they continued to back down!

She had to break them, break them all for good, but how? Stomping Vale into nothing would only enrage them more, destroying Beacon even more so.

Plus… those girls, yes, those girls. They were there, at Beacon. She could detect them so clearly now somehow.

That girl, Ruby Rose, with those silver eyes. She's killed so many of her precious friends with those accursed eyes. But not anymore, against her current level of might, granted to her by so many of her Grimm, the silver eyes would do nothing more than merely blind her!

And then that other girl, Arc's younger sister! From here, she could feel the girl's very presence, she'd awakened that semblance and it had proven to be exactly like she'd expected it to be.

It would seem that the Arc girl was somewhat similar to her, something akin to a 'Mind' for humanity itself! But her semblance was just barely awakened. It was a weak power, feeble, useless as it is right now! She was no threat, she never was!

Such a thought made Salem, as addled as her mind was, inwardly sneer.

To think she'd once placed some level of importance on those two girls. But now they were little more than gnats, just like everyone else. No, even less than that. Given just how much Jaune Arc and Ozpin had likely been betting on those two being trump cards, they were worse than useless gnats for not being anywhere near their full potential in terms of their respective trump card abilities.

Ha, not like it'd matter even if they were; she was far more powerful than anything that they could combat now.

Salem thus continued her 'walk' forward…

Only to then stop.

She let out a small wail of surprise.

There, through the connection she had with all the Grimm now… something was wrong! They were all losing! Losing!

But how?!

Humanity should have started to lose hope by now, what with how many Grimm there were, with how much more intelligently they were acting! So how and why was humanity still able to persist like this!

…

…

…Ah!

There!

Through the eyes of all the Grimm, Salem could only remain stationary and watch as things played out in all the kingdoms and the lands in between.

The armed forces of Atlas slowly yet surely driving back her Grimm through superior firepower and odd new tactics.

The teachers and students of Haven, supported by the fighting citizens of Mistral, were now beginning to retake the academy and the surrounding areas, finally pushing back the Grimm by way of setting up traps along the mountains' sides.

Vacuo's unruly population was being united into one big fighting force now… under a man that shared Jaune Arc's surname?! Even here, it seems like an Arc must pester them! And they were succeeding too, said man's strength supplementing everyone else's gung-ho spirits by a landslide. And just what kind of equipment were they now using?!

But it was more than just that… everywhere, fighting was going on.

The various villages and towns throughout each and every kingdom and the areas in between had taken up arms. For their families and friends and so-called loved ones. Mercenaries and bandits were banding together for the common cause of survival. Citizens that would've ran in fear any other time were taking up arms to defend their homes. Even that damned island of 'Faunus' were all doing something, pushing back the Grimm native to such an island and the surrounding waters by the command of a man she knew not, one that was tall and well built and with pitch black fur!

A rumble began to well deep within Salem's chest.

Her eyes narrowed as she continued to observe through this connection.

There was more.

In isolated areas, severe weather conditions were suddenly forming and seemed to be specifically targeting Grimm travelling across the land. This was occurring in three specific areas throughout all of Remnant.

There was no doubt about it – the remaining Maidens.

And what's more…

Here and there, there'd be flashes of an all too familiar silver light before the connection to those Grimm there faded.

Damn it all!

She always knew that Ruby Rose wasn't the only remaining silver eyed individual, but never had she imagined the remaining ones to awaken to such a power now during this final Trial!

All of these images and the information it provided proceeded to fill her with an even greater rage than she'd felt before. She should've seen it all coming.

But perhaps… yes, this was a blessing in disguise.

What better way than to truly break Ozpin's and Jaune Arc's spirits along with those of their allies than by first stamping out everyone and everything else? What better way to make them feel true despair than to make it known that what they were fighting for no longer existed?

With dark purpose now in mind, Salem finally began to make use of her wings, flapping them intensely.

And despite just how massive her new form, she was able to take to the sky just a moment later.

She couldn't help but let out a booming laugh as she made her way elsewhere.

Time to show humanity what their end looks like. _Personally._

* * *

"It's taking off!" someone cried out.

Such a statement brought about a mixed reception among the tired and battle-worn students and teachers of Beacon, with some cheering for that thing's departure.

But a number of the others could only let out undiscernible sounds of trepidation.

Wherever that thing was going, it couldn't possibly be good.

Yang was among such a group, the normally lively and fierce brawler feeling her own heart clench at the sight of that monstrosity's rapidly disappearing form as it flew to the north.

"Just when I thought today couldn't get any crazier," she mumbled out, feeling tired in ways she didn't know were possible until just a few minutes ago, when the Grimm had all been suddenly wiped out here.

With no other Grimm seemingly in sight, it had allowed them all just a couple minutes of respite and she'd eagerly taken it without hesitation.

The same could be said of Pyrrha, who was currently sitting on the ground, catching her breath.

And Jeanne, who'd expended quite a bit of stamina by using that newly awakened semblance of hers, was practically out cold right now, having been brought down from the top of the tower just a moment ago by the two of them in order to rest.

Seeing this, Yang rather envied the girl, if only because she was currently unaware of the existence of that… well, whatever exactly that thing had been. Granted, she was going to get brought up to speed whenever she rested enough to wake up, but there was no telling how long that'd be.

That aside, when all the Grimm had been annihilated out of the blue, Yang had wasted no time calling up the others to check on them, starting first with her little sister.

Her heart had all but exploded from worry when Ruby hadn't answered her scroll, but she'd settled down when Nora had answered hers and revealed that Ruby was okay, just extremely tired as of now.

Blake, Weiss, and Ren appeared to be relatively okay as well and were currently on the way to link up with the rest of them here on Beacon's grounds, where it should continue to be relatively safe.

The thought of seeing her sister and friends again sadly did little to fully put her at ease, however.

And it seemed like the P of team JNPR felt the same way too.

"Just what was that thing?" Pyrrha asked, her voice little more than a whisper right now, no doubt from the shock.

"Your guess is probably better than mine…" Yang replied. Unlike Pyrrha, she couldn't bring herself to sit down and wait for the others. Instead, she started pacing back and forth in a rather agitated state, her nerves feeling so frayed that her semblance, usually so quick to respond to her stronger emotions, didn't trigger at all.

"I can tell you one thing though, Pyr," Yang said, using the redhead's little nickname that some used for her. "That thing was no damned Grimm… no way it could be…"

She sure hoped it wasn't a Grimm. Because if it was, then just how in the hell were any of them going to be able to fight it. The barrage the Atlas fleet had just unleashed on it before it took off looked like it wasn't even fazing the damned thing!

And speaking of which…

"Think they're going after it?" She pointed up at the Atlas fleet above, which had long since started to move now save for a few ships that appeared to be either landing here or over in Vale. Probably medics or something.

"Have to be." Pyrrha's voice sounded hard, with an expression to match. "Something like that… there's no way it could just be let to roam around, no matter how strong it may be."

Yang hummed in agreement. "Fair point. Whelp. Sure hope they got the firepower to deal with that."

Although she couldn't see it, there were also two others going after that creature and these two disappeared in veritable streaks of light – one light blue and the other a pitch black.

* * *

Winter was hardly the sort of person to cheer for anything, but now felt _almost_ as good a time as any to do so.

And with reason – the Grimm were being pushed back.

It'd been a terrifyingly tough process and one that had felt like it'd lasted days when it was scarcely a fraction of that imagined time, but it was being done.

The Grimm that had been terrorizing the city on the ground had been slowly dealt with by the paladins, which were backed up by troops that kept the Grimm distracted long enough for the paladins to deliver the main devastating blows. Meanwhile, upon the walls, the troops and robots stationed there have finally been able to rally together enough to form a tight grid that allowed them to protect certain sections of the walls while the Grimm that did get past were swiftly dealt with by precise cannon fire from the various ships that were in the air.

As for her, although she had yet to see direct combat today, she'd been able to do her part well enough by supplementing the cannon fire of her command ship and any nearby ships with her glyphs. Using the acceleration glyph, she'd drastically been able to improve the speed of their shots and by extension their power, as the extra momentum allowed the shots to blast right through any and all unsuspecting Grimm as if they were made of wet paper.

The Grimm may still retain air superiority overall, if only due to numbers and mobility, but now it wasn't as bad as it was in the beginning.

It helped too, of course, that many of the Grimm actually seemed to be doing something that Winter never thought she'd see them do.

They were _retreating_.

Such a sight was enough to boggle the mind, but not enough to make her stop what she was doing nor stop giving orders over her comms link.

But just as it never occurred to her that the Grimm could ever be so intelligent and vicious and actually capable of retreat, it had likewise never occurred to her that there would be a reason for this action.

As a result, she was in a state of reverie that lasted until a sudden transmission came her way.

"Ma'am!" spoke a frightened sounding crew member from the bridge. "We're receiving transmissions from General Ironwood and his fleet! He demands to speak with you immediately!"

At this, Winter's rising mood fell and she narrowed her eyes in equal parts confusion and worry. Up until now, neither fleet has had trouble communicating with one another. Although she may not be on the bridge of this ship anymore, it should've been easy for the general to patch through to her directly.

So why did the general have to connect to the bridge first to get to her?

"Put him through!" she said.

The crew member did just that and immediately the specialist understood why Ironwood had to go through the trouble of doing it this way – nothing but static for the most, just barely any words audible through it all.

It was a common thing due to the extreme storms that occurred out here in the land of Mantle, but it was an issue that has long since been overcome.

The only way such an issue could have resurfaced and now of all times would only be if the storm outside the walls and over the mountains had intensified greatly.

But that just wasn't possible… was it?

"Say again, general! I repeat, say again!"

"Spe-.. Nee! …incoming! -uate…city!" came the still garbled response, only a few words getting through at most and even then, not even completely.

But Winter got the gist quite well. And as if to further make a point to her, a chill suddenly raced throughout her entire body before seeming to dig down into her very soul.

The sudden cries of the troops down below didn't help, as did the chatter over the comms link from the bridge.

Ordering the ship to turn around, Winter, who was hanging onto the very side of said ship by way of an opened hangar door, finally got a good look at what was causing all the ruckus.

Immediately, her blood ran cold. Her eyes widened to a degree unlike ever before and her heartrate practically flatlined from the shock.

Off in the distance, flying over the mountains that it easily _dwarfed_ in size was a creature unlike anything she'd ever seen. Not even in the nightmares she used to have as a child had such a thing ever existed. A small part of it, mainly its torso and face, clearly looked human in nature, with long hair to boot. But the rest of its body… words failed her.

…It was heading straight for the city. And fast!

Already, the thing was landing!

"OPEN FIRE!" she screamed at a volume she had never thought herself to be capable of and with a sudden sense of desperation that defied description.

It took all of a split second for her command to be broadcasted by the crew of this ship to the rest of the forces and this took a split second long – by the time every single ship and troop and paladin started shooting, the thing had already landed.

And what an impact it was.

The thing was far bigger than any mountain in Remnant – and was it just a trick of her eyes, but did it seem to be getting marginally bigger by the second? – and likely had a mass to match such a size. That it was even capable of flight indicated the sort of strength and support its enormous wings must be capable of, especially considering the speed it'd moved at in the air just now.

Now that it's landed, however, they all came to learn firsthand just how much this nightmarish thing weighed, the landing impact surpassing the Richter scale that their seismologists used to measure quakes.

Buildings collapsed. Entire sections of the city were split open. The men on the ground below were instantly killed, be it by being crushed by the thing or the falling buildings or from the sheer shockwave such an impact produced.

What's more, several of the bunkers set up to take in civilians… had been destroyed too. Although said bunkers were underground and built to withstand attacks from even Goliaths, she knew exactly where they were located… and built to last or not, there was no way they could be capable of enduring such an 'attack,' especially when the very earth below those bunkers started to cave in on themselves.

Such a sight left Winter feeling so very stunned. For a brief second, everything seemed to fade from her senses save for that monstrous thing and the destruction it had wrought with so simple an action.

But this only lasted for a veritable instant before everything seemed to return to her. The horrified chatter over her comms link made sure of that.

Winter saw red. And a small part of her wished to act on this feeling, but she managed to stop herself from doing so.

Immediately, she came to learn what it was she had to do.

Trying to focus everything on this new creature would do no good; already, she could see the airships firing upon it accomplishing absolutely nothing, the innumerable rounds and missiles being fired upon it all but disappearing before direct impact.

"To any and all ground troops left, evacuate the civilians! Get them as far away from here as possible!" she ordered over the comms link.

As if in response to her order, the thing on the ground took one massive step forward and seemed to turn, its entire body, draconic in nature, shifting as it did so. Again, it was a simple action, yet its size made even this a dangerous thing as several ships that had been flying around it to nearly crash right into its sides.

One ship in particular didn't get so lucky and Winter unfortunately had a perfect view of it about to slam into the side of the monster's horn. But before it could fully crash, the most incredible and terrifying thing occurred – the ship and its unfortunate occupants were literally disintegrated upon getting within mere meters of the creature and the resulting mist-like substance that was all that remained of the ship was promptly absorbed into its skin.

The thing slightly tilted its head upwards. It looked directly at her.

Then it _smiled_ , it genuinely _smiled_.

Such a sight was beyond horrific. The way those many sharp teeth grinded against each other as the split lips somehow curled upwards into a cruel and twisted expression nearly made Winter freeze.

But she still managed to retain her wits, if only barely. What's more, she shouted out an outright terrified order that all but demanded it to be obeyed immediately.

"Evasive action!"

The instant she yelled out this order, the pilots responded. The ship quickly started to swerve and fly as far away from that creature as possible.

But not quickly enough.

The monstrosity took a quick breath… and roared.

To Winter and no doubt to everyone else in the city, the roar sounded like the end of the world. It simply defied all other description.

As all over sound was drowned out in the world, the only thing Winter was aware of in the following moment was the ship being blown away, with her and the rest of the crew along with it. Her mouth was open in a silent scream as this occurred… or maybe not. Maybe she was screaming, but simply couldn't hear it due to the roar. She was certain the crew was screaming though, especially as the ship quickly approached one of the many devastated streets below.

She might've yelled out an order to brace for impact, but whether or not she actually did or if anyone even heard it, she'd never know.

The ship hit the ground hard and it was only the result of some absurd kind of luck that she was flung from the ship rather than be left to tumble around within it. This didn't save her from being violently flung through what remained of an upscale penthouse, the specialist unable to do anything at all to protect herself from such an event.

Winter hit the ground and skidded across for several dozen yards before finally coming to a stop.

Her body hurt all over. She was disoriented beyond belief. It was entire minutes before she finally started to regain her senses, at which point she came to realize just how much pain she was in.

But she was quick to start wriggling her entire body, making sure she still retained her limbs. So with as much haste as was possible, she tried to stand up, her hand clumsily reaching for her blade…

…Only to stop when a rumble shook the ground below, causing the ruined street to split apart more than before.

It would seem that thing had taken another step, something that she then confirmed by looking up at it.

Literally.

The damned thing… it was practically walking right past her, give or take several dozen meters. And it was here, in such close proximity to it – relatively speaking – that she was able to see what was going on around it.

There, flying ever so closely by its side were dozens of Nevermores and Gryphons, all of them literally flying directly into the thing, seemingly being absorbed by it. What's more, she could see the same being done to practically everything else around it, entire buildings and cars and people, some living and some not, being pulled off the ground as if gravity ceased to work around this thing. They all suffered the same fate as the Grimm, being broken up and sucked within the behemoth's very being.

All the while, the remaining ships continued to fire upon. She had no idea what was going on, her comms link having been lost in her crash, so all she had to go on was what she saw. The remaining ships seemed to be executing one of the more basic maneuvers used in aerial combat, but to what effect remained unknown – this thing seemed to be ignoring them for this moment.

Her eyes following it as it continued to stomp forward, its presence alone tearing up all that was around it, Winter then proceeded to turn and start to run towards the ship. First to check on her crew and second to reestablish communications with the forces that still remained and the general too, if possible.

But just as she began to do so, the creature suddenly let out a sound. It was almost like it was trying to hit a high note of some kind, almost like a singer. And in response, innumerable streaks of light – no, not light, aura! – were unleashed from its body.

The entire sky, normally completely dark and snowy as a result of the climate and constant snowstorms, was rendered blinding as streaks of aura colored it. The beams, for what else could they possibly be called, shot forth at speeds Winter could just barely track and bent in ways that made her eyes hurt.

What she could see, however, made her cry out. "NO!"

The beams overwhelmed the remaining ships like it was nothing, destroying them all in an instant before they all shot forth across the city and even further beyond.

Explosion after explosion rang out as the innumerable beams carpet bombed everything within tens of miles of the creature, the very earth shaking beneath Winter's feet with such violent force that she was knocked to the ground.

This lasted only a scant few minutes, but felt so much longer to Winter, the specialist feeling so horrified and helpless that everything seemed to play out over the span of hours to her.

As she shakily stood and turned to look all around her, seeing the entire city leveled, it was with a numbness that she only now appeared to realize and acknowledge something:

This thing, whatever exactly it is, simply couldn't be beat. Nothing she nor others could do could possibly even inconvenience this creature.

And this was something the thing in question seemed to know as well. For it took a shallow breath and its entire form shook lightly. It didn't take Winter long at all to realize that this thing was _holding back a laugh._ It was sapient, that much now looked certain and enough to realize the circumstances.

Winter's hands balled tightly into fists at the sight as the creature continued its trek forward. Such an action had stoked her terror into righteous anger and she quickly turned back around to head to her fallen ship.

First, she'd help the survivors, if there were any, out of there and then try to see if communications were still up.

This was no longer a situation where direct combat was possible. Instead, she had to try and get as many troops and rescue workers as was possible to start evacuating everyone whose areas have yet to be reached by that thing.

Or else, the entire kingdom and its inhabitants will be wiped out entirely.

As she began to run as quickly as she could to her decided destination, a streak of blue light suddenly appeared in the sky above, surprising her.

A quick turn of the head as she kept on running, she saw it heading directly for that thing at a speed she could scarcely track.

But nonetheless, she began to hope that whatever this now was, it wasn't on that thing's side.

* * *

It was all coming back to him now. His sight, that is.

When Jaune had first lost his physical sense of sight all that time ago, he honestly hadn't been expecting it to ever return. That said, he'd entertained the idea from time to time.

And whenever he'd had such a thought, it'd always led to daydreams of a sort, simple yet joyful. Daydreams in which he'd regain his sight to be able to look upon his family once more or him looking upon a world where the Grimm and the Trial were no longer needed.

Alas, reality hadn't been so kind to him.

As his sight continued to restore itself at a significant pace, what he first saw was the trail of destruction Salem had left in her wake.

It would seem that when she'd started to fly from Vale to Atlas here, the woman had used her semblance to tear apart the very ground below her, leaving no survivors at all in the once populated areas she'd flown over. The weather, no matter how nice it may have been, had been warped into something far darker and ominous. Areas where the weather wasn't so pleasant and even had regular storms have been turned into an all but continuous stream of hail or lightning, constantly crushing the land below.

And that wasn't even getting into what had occurred in the kingdom of Atlas so far.

Jaune knew that snowstorms were a common occurrence, but never has he heard or seen a storm so unbelievably intense. No doubt it had been the work of Salem, the snowstorm so violent outside of the cities that he wouldn't be surprised if it interfered with communications outside of the kingdom, which was likely what monstrous woman had desired.

When he finally caught up, it was to see the devastation already wrought within the city, or rather what was now left of it.

The sight of the all but flattened city with Salem's massive form beginning its haughty trek forward filled Jaune with a rage unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

Given what had happened back in Vale just now, he really ought to wait for Tenebrous to catch up, having actually been able to outstrip the Power's flight speed significantly. After all, by himself, he stood very little chance of doing anything to her.

But he was far too damned mad to care for that right now.

So he flew even faster than he already was flying, his abilities increasing even more than they already were.

He headed straight for Salem's leg and slammed into her right hind leg with several times more power than any strike he'd dealt to her eldritch form before. And this time, he was just as quick to pull back lest he be grabbed by any hands that could manifest from the limb and sped off.

His attack had grabbed her attention, if her sudden howl was anything to go by, but he paid it little mind as he smashed into her other hind leg before speeding off to go and attack her two front legs.

If he could at least knock her down completely, even if only for a few seconds, it could halt her march forward just long enough for Tenebrous to catch up and thereby allow the two of them to attack in unison again.

Unfortunately, Salem promptly unleashed a shockwave that knocked him back an entire mile just as he'd started to circle around her.

Then the transformed woman surprised him by swiftly turning her entire body, her tail hitting him with such almighty strength that Jaune could feel his entire form disperse from the hit.

Yet his conscious still remained, the young man vaguely aware of everything around him, from how the air pressure of the tail strike obliterated all the mountains outside the city for tens of miles on end to how Salem now opened her wings up as much as was physically possible.

By now, through sheer willpower, his 'body' reformed in only a handful of nanoseconds, but by the time he'd fully finished reforming, Salem's wings launched a multitude of… well, he wouldn't call them feathers, though the projectiles shared similar shapes to the real deal.

In any case, Jaune flew at Salem whilst avoiding the launched projectiles. However, just as he neared, Salem _lunged_ right at him, her mouth opening as wide as possible, which proved to be a truly terrifying sight given just how far that Glasgow-like grin of hers extended down the neck.

So many teeth.

And as fast as he kept on becoming, against a foe of such a size and with a surprising level of speed herself, he was unable to change direction in time to escape her jaws. They closed on him with a sound unlike anything he could possibly identify and he went tumbling along her tongue towards her teeth due to having tried to backtrack prior to being munched on like this.

The instant he came into contact with the tongue, he was immediately aware that something was very off about it and sure enough with just a single glance at it, he was proven right – acidic properties that would've almost immediately killed anyone else.

Thankfully, being made of pure aura, he was immune to such properties and he kicked off her tongue and launched the fiercest punch he could muster at the nearest tooth, the size of it many times his own size.

His blow connected and although he was nothing but aura, he could feel his punch affect the tooth a bit, which prompted him to throw several more punches at rapid speeds until the tooth finally get knocked right out of its place.

Salem let out a roar of genuine surprise and slight pain at this and had he been even a nanosecond slower, such a roar would have sent him flying into the very front of her still closed mouth. As it is, however, he was able to fly out of the newly made opening, coming out the side of Salem's neck.

He then curved upwards, flying past the massive horn jutting out the side of Salem's head and this time managed to launch a successful attack at her eye.

It proved to be simultaneously the nastiest and most satisfying thing he'd ever done so far, the sensation of his 'foot' as it pierced through the mass being able to elicit some genuine pain from Salem. It also resulted in what passed for Salem's blood now to spew forth, nearly enveloping his entire form.

But Salem proved to be prepared, for just as this occurred, the spewing liquid – his mind simply refused to classify it properly as blood anymore – suddenly sprang to life, moving through the air and nearly piercing him through his 'chest' and 'head.'

That was when someone came to the rescue – Tenebrous.

His friend came divebombing from above, ramming completely into Salem's eye while her attention had been entirely on him. And unlike him, who only stuck his entire 'foot' in, Tenebrous completely buried himself within the eye, just above the iris.

This certainly grabbed Salem's attention, enough for her concentration to break and for the liquid to fall harmlessly to the ground far below.

Jaune pulled his 'foot' loose and flew back, ready to gather up enough momentum to circle around and attack Salem's other eye, but just before he could do so, the eye he and Tenebrous just attacked bulged horrifically, almost as if it was about to give birth to something.

Instead, what happened was honestly much worse in his opinion.

The entire eye burst open, shooting out Tenebrous who swiftly recovered and flew next to Jaune just as the burst eye restored itself by essentially reversing the process of what had just occurred, the liquid pooling itself back within the socket before the rest restored itself.

Jaune couldn't help it. _"That… was just nasty,"_ he said.

" **Agreed."** It looked like even Tenebrous could hardly bring himself to look at such a sight.

The second-long idle banter came to an end and the two of them looked at Salem, trying to figure out just what to do now. Her guard would now be up, so attempting the same thing likely wouldn't work again.

Or maybe it would? After all, given that Salem had upped and left Vale alone despite having had the entire city and the rest of the kingdom at her mercy, perhaps it'd be possible to attempt such a tactic again?

Jaune was certain that Salem leaving Vale was due to arrogance and perhaps even some genuine insanity – merging with all those Grimm couldn't possibly be good for one's mind – but he was now feeling somewhat hesitant on what to do.

Despite how well things had turned out just now, the odds were still against him and everyone else by an outright hilarious degree.

However, before he could come up with anything to do, Salem decided to make a move.

She jumped. High.

For a millisecond, Jaune could only stare, his mind boggling at the sight of something so massive being able to jump so easily like that. Flying was one thing, Salem had wings for that, but to jump?!

It only took him another millisecond to then realize the implications.

With that much mass…

" **Let's go!"** Tenebrous said, flying up at Salem with every intention of stopping her.

Jaune was quick to follow.

Together, the two of them flew as fast as they could, altering their flight path so that they were directly below Salem's massive form, which still traveled upwards.

Worry gnawed at Jaune like no tomorrow, to put it mildly. As heavy as Salem is now, to fall directly down from this kind of height would be beyond catastrophic. If there were any survivors from Salem's brief rampage until now, this would result in those people being completely wiped off the map along with what little remained of the city. Same thing went for the land further beyond. The entire kingdom would be feeling it.

They had to stop this or at the very least, mitigate the damage as much as possible.

Lacking any sort of long range options or anything else for that matter, what the two of them must do was woefully obvious.

" _Ready?"_ he asked his friend, his disembodied voice managing to carry over to him despite their current speed.

" **Ready."**

Jaune nodded… and braced himself for impact with his 'arms' held upwards and spread apart, Tenebrous in a similar position.

By the time they reached Salem, the monstrous woman had reached the very apex of her jump and just barely started to fall. They slammed into her underbelly like comets and dug their fingers into her flesh as much as possible.

Their 'plan' to stop Salem here was beyond simple – they intended to lift her and move her away from the city through sheer brute strength.

But as powerful as both of them are individually and together, holding up a mass that far surpassed mountain ranges was far from easy.

The two of them let out roars of pure exertion as they attempted to halt Salem's descent, using their power of flight to keep them all suspended in the air for just a brief few precious seconds.

But Salem used her semblance to unleash multiple shockwaves that knocked them away and then flapped her wings to descend with even greater speed than she would otherwise.

For added insult, she stomped down on the duo with her front right foot.

But Jaune wasn't in a mood to give up so easily. Neither was his friend.

With a roar of indignation, Jaune pushed himself out from under Salem's foot and flew towards her torso again, followed a second later by Tenebrous. They both grabbed hold of her again and this time when Salem unleashed a shockwave to knock them away, they absolutely refused to let go.

Despite their best efforts, however, Salem continued to fall, their efforts so far only succeeding in slowing her descent marginally.

But a few seconds later, as the ground came into view much more clearly, things changed.

They began to slow considerably as the two of them exerted every last bit of power that they had.

Jaune, whether he knew it or not, was the main star of this incredible feat, as his power now began to grow at a far greater speed than before. Little by little, Salem's mass became easier for him to lift up, a fact that his mind only scarcely realized and acknowledged as he and Tenebrous now sought to move her away from the city.

With him providing the lifting while Tenebrous was left to 'steering,' they flew with one extremely shocked Salem to the west, out to where the utterly flattened mountains were at thanks to her tail swipe from earlier. They slowly lowered closer to the ground as well until they were merely several dozen feet above ground.

Then with a great heave, Jaune and Tenebrous tried _throwing_ Salemjust a bit further to the west and promptly let go, flying away from her before she hit the ground.

And when she did, it was with a truly colossal amount of force. No doubt, the city still felt that rumble, but compared to what could have happened, this was more of a blessing.

Jaune flew up and over Salem before coming to a stop, uncertainly staring at her before then looking to his own 'hands.' Only now did it dawn on him what had occurred and he could only levitated in place in complete amazement.

" **To think you've grown this strong…"** Tenebrous muttered from beside him, along with something else that Jauen couldn't hear.

" _Y-Yeah,"_ he replied almost numbly, unsure of what else to even say let alone think.

What had occurred just now had been nothing short of ridiculous and he and his friend had been the source of it.

Taking just a second longer to marvel at what had just occurred, Jaune then focused back on the issue at hand.

Salem.

Perhaps from shock, the monstrosity that had once been a woman didn't seem to be moving much at all, if only for the moment. This was something that made Jaune feel oddly better despite all the circumstances.

However, it also brought to mind one simple thing:

Just what to do now?

They may have just saved whatever was left of the city and its inhabitants, but how to stop Salem herself?

Whatever answers such a question could have refused to come to him and before he could think on what else to do, Salem finally began to stir.

Immediately, Jaune wished to launch another assault, but considering the mixed results so far, he managed to suppress the urge to do so for the time being, if only until he and Tenebrous see what exactly Salem has planned now.

And this proved to be a great mistake.

The very instant Salem turned and locked her massive eyes on the two of them, several invisible ripples suddenly emitted from Salem. Jaune was only able to 'see' the ripples because in addition to his returning eyesight, he still retained the ability to see aura, which allowed him to see the ripples.

But he wasn't quick enough in reacting to them, for the ripples didn't seem to be functioning like those shockwaves Salem has made before.

So when the ripples struck him, he was in for a hell of a surprise when suddenly, they just seemed to brighten, actually blinding him to such an extent that he instinctively brought up his 'arms' to cover his 'eyes' despite not having a physical body.

This proved to be a second mistake as he suddenly felt Tenebrous smash against him, knocking him off balance.

The sudden force should have sent them both careening several yards to the left, but that didn't occur, for he instead found himself mashed up against some kind of wall that he couldn't see through initially.

It didn't take his mind very long to realize what had happened – he and Tenebrous had been encased in a circular barrier, one far too small for either of them to move around in, let alone exert the strength needed to break free.

But nonetheless, he immediately tried doing so, feebly banging against the nearest part of it he could maneuver his attack to. But it did nothing, with nowhere near enough room to through a proper punch.

What's more, the barrier seemed to shrink even more in response.

" _Gah…!"_ He couldn't help but cry out as what little room he had left vanished as he and Tenebrous were furthered smashed together. Not only that, but it felt like several more layers had been added to the barrier as an extra precaution.

Then he felt the sphere they were trapped in suddenly launch itself at great speeds. Upwards, from the feel of it.

It was several seconds before they finally stopped, hitting… something… before rolling along like a ball. The barrier shrunk even more as did the extra layers outside of it, pressing them together ever more tightly.

Even if Tenberous switch to his fog-like state, it'd do little good in freeing up room. That is how tight they were now trapped.

Panic began to set into Jaune's mind and heart, figuratively speaking.

Due to the circumstances, he and Tenebrous were the only ones that could even get close to Salem without being ripped apart on a molecular level and absorbed into her very being. If they're stuck in here, then that meant the rest of Remnant was now left at Salem's mercy, of which she had none.

Feebly, he tried banging on the barrier, but found the lack of space to make it impossible to do more than wriggle around.

" _Damn it, damn it!"_ he roared. This was the absolute last thing that they could afford to happen. _"We have to get out of here and quick!"_

He kept struggling, but to no avail. Not even his increasing strength could do much good right now with so little room to operate in.

It was a few seconds before he realized that Tenebrous wasn't really doing anything. Instead, the Power seemed to be tilting his head as much as possible to his right and upwards, looking at something.

" _Tenebrous, come on! Help me out here!"_

"… **Jaune,"** his friend began. **"Look."**

Jaune, confused by his friend's tone of voice, found himself obeying without hesitation.

And what he saw froze him down to the core.

It would seem that the barrier had become transparent right after their landing. He simply hadn't noticed due to having been so focused on trying to break out instead.

So it was with an unbelievable sense of amazement and horror that he looked up…

At the planet.

The implication of such a sight struck him far harder than anything else up to this point. He couldn't help but outright gasp. And how could he not do so?

After all, Salem had launched them to the _moon_.

* * *

Salem finally got back up completely and inwardly giggled at her handiwork.

Those two had been pests from the start, but just a moment ago, they'd really started to enrage her.

Even scare her just a tad bit too – she'd never thought they could budge her, let alone lift her like they'd done.

Ha, goes to show that she really ought to have done that much sooner, send them away.

With the two of them slowly being crushed by nearly a dozen barriers layered over one another, they likely won't be getting in her way again anytime soon. Sending them to the moon had simply been a extra precaution to ensure they wouldn't be flying after her too soon.

Now with those two, immune to her semblance, out of the way…

There truly was no one and nothing left to stop her.

With a sickening smile appearing on her warped face, Salem continued her trek towards Atlas once more.

* * *

 **There you guys go! Hope this was a chapter that you all enjoyed!**

 **In case it's not too obvious, Salem's current form is heavily inspired by Tiamat's draconic form from Fate Grand Order, albeit with some modifications here and there to reflect Salem herself, of course. Not the most original thing I could've done, but I did what I thought worked, so I hope it proved to be something terrifying yet cool for you guys too.**

 **Whelp, up next, you can expect some serious terror since Jaune and Tenebrous are out of the picture for the time being! I'll do my best to make it as terrifying as I can, even more so than when Tenebrous killed those White Fang guys from chapter 15 and when it scared Cinder and the others!**

 **Again, now with this chapter done, I will be writing up the next chapter for my novel first before getting back to work on this fic, so it'll be back to my 'usual' schedule, so to speak. So the next update likely won't be until around the end of this month or maybe even early February depending on the length and difficulty of my novel-writing.**

 **Hope this won't be a problem!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	49. Chapter 49

And I'm back! Was tempted to write more than just one chapter for my novel, but writer's block still plagues me, it seems – just writing the most recent chapter for it had been pretty hard. To be expected considering the part of the novel I'm at is pretty damn dull by my own admission. Going to have to change that up if I want it to be well-received once I'm done with it and publish it. Like seriously, I'll definitely need to improve it quite a bit at this point. My only solace is that soon the action in it will begin and I'm fairly confident that those scenes will be much easier for me to do.

On another note, finally caught up with volume 5 of RWBY. And I'm sure my opinion of it is very much along the lines of you guys' collective and individual opinion as well. A shame the volume turned out the way it had. In all honesty, it definitely had potential and personally I feel that it could've benefitted from maybe an additional five episodes for the crew to properly expand on the events that occurred in this volume because it all felt extremely compressed. Plus, it probably would've better helped the narrative flow, but maybe this is just me being a bit too optimistic in my assessment.

Oh well. Hopefully volume 6 will really turn things around. I'm somewhat hopeful for the antagonists to have better showings in the future as well because they really need it.

Anyways, onto the chapter! Things are going to be rather bleak in this one!

Chapter 49

Winter wasn't a person prone to despair, but in this case, that is exactly what she was feeling.

She had no idea who or what those two entities had been – it'd taken her a brief moment to realize those two streaks of light and darkness were actual beings initially – but the mere fact that they'd shown up to apparently combat that monster had more than elated her.

But while those two beings had certainly had a far better showing against that thing than the fleet had, it still hadn't been enough it would seem. They may have managed to actually carry that behemoth away from the city, but her hopes for something more than that had been short-lived.

Now the monster was back and those two entities were no longer anywhere in sight.

Had they been killed? Knocked out? Merely trapped somewhere? Winter couldn't begin to guess.

All that mattered was that the monster was once more trampling its way through the city, deeper and deeper into the kingdom, waves and waves of energy being fired from its body and bombarding all that she could see.

Against such a seemingly almighty foe, all seemed lost. To continue trying to combat it would be foolish.

Yet that was something that even in the midst of her despair Winter intended to do.

She was a proud member of Atlas' military, a specialist under the direct command of general Ironwood himself. Her duty was to defeat any foe that dared attack Atlas or otherwise posed a threat to the peace between the kingdoms. And although the scale here was one she was well out of her league in, her duty still applied.

In the time it had taken for this thing to return and begin its assault once more, she'd managed to reach her ship. Sadly, most of her crew had died in the crash and the very few surviving ones had been so badly injured that they expired from their injuries not long after she'd gotten to them.

She was all that remained, at least here in this part of the kingdom.

It'd been with barely withheld tears that she'd managed to send out a transmission to anyone and everyone who could possibly receive it of what was going on, a warning of this massive demon, sent with the hope that maybe – and only maybe – others would somehow be able to put together something to fend this creature off.

That had been just a few minutes ago and now she ran, no longer caring about the injuries she'd sustained from the crash, after that thing.

Perhaps it was sheer dumb luck that she'd yet to be slain. But the behemoth seemed to be firing all those beams far away, evidently not accounting for any potential survivors that were near it, relatively speaking.

…Not that there were any other survivors to speak of so far.

Winter's grip on her weapon, which she'd finally managed to draw forth, tightened to a point where even her own barely remaining aura could keep her fingers from painfully drawing blood from her palm.

Despair gave way to rage. Rage led to action.

She'd been in awe of how those two unknown entities had combatted this monstrosity. But despite her awe, she'd made sure to pay as much attention as was possible in the hopes of perhaps replicating what they'd done. And while she couldn't really be sure about the entity of darkness – had looked vaguely like a Grimm, but sure didn't act like one – the other one seems to have been one of pure aura. And both of them had been able to continually get close to that thing without meeting the same fate as everything else.

It was only hypothesis on her part, one with only this little bit of info to work with, but she was fairly sure that aura could bypass whatever death-field that surrounded this thing.

And her semblance was more or less exactly that.

Concentrating even as she ran, a glyph formed beneath her constantly moving feet and immediately went into effect, boosting her speed as much as her own body could withstand in order to keep up with the monster's far slower yet equally larger strides.

Another glyph then formed behind her and from it came a multitude of birds, constructs of pure aura modeled after Nevermores that she'd slain during her years of service. At her mental command, they all flew as fast as they could towards the behemoth that arrogantly walked forth, unaware of their incoming presence.

Their speed, while certainly greater than any average bird, wasn't enough however, and so it was with a great deal of effort that Winter created multiple acceleration glyphs along their straightforward flight path, each one large enough to ensure the entire flock passed through it.

As soon as they passed through the first one, the aura constructs shot forth through the second and third and so on with ever increasing speed, to the point where even Winter herself found it hard to keep track of their forms.

A second later, they reached their target, striking the underbelly of the massive creature and exploding on impact, said explosions small yet packing enough power that when combined with their momentum up until now would've been enough to put the hurt on even Goliaths.

But against a creature of such mindboggling size and power, it didn't seem to do anything to it, not even get its attention.

But this confirmed Winter's hypothesis and that alone was enough. It meant that she had some way of reaching it.

Slowing just enough to start leaping onto a pile of rubble and from there onto a building that remained somewhat standing, Winter made her way to the very top of it.

Memories flooded her mind as she did this. This building had once been a hotel and a very high end one at that. It had once stood forty stories tall and had been one of the most pristine and well-fortified structures that this city had to offer. Now it was in shambles, leveled down to the tenth floor and the remains of it looking ready to collapse completely with just one more decent attack.

Reaching what remained of the tenth floor, Winter dashed to the edge and planted herself there before kneeling. A glyph far larger than the one before appeared beneath her and from it, two aura constructs appeared in the form of Nevermores, each one twice the size of a truck.

Sweat formed and trickled down the side of her face as they took shape. This was eating up what remained of her aura. By all rights, she was now as defenseless as she could ever be. But even if she did retain her full aura, it still wouldn't protect her at all against a creature like that, so it was ultimately a small price to pay for some additional firepower.

The aura constructed Nevermores let out silent caws and proceeded to fly towards their massive target and at far greater speeds than the smaller ones she'd made not even half a minute ago.

Once more creating acceleration glyphs for them to pass through, Winter watched as she continued to make as many more aura constructs as possible to follow after the first two.

One after another, they flew through the glyphs and accelerated towards the target. And unlike before, where the smaller birds had struck the underbelly of the creature, virtually all the aura constructs she was making proceeded to essentially bomb its chest and front legs. Each and every explosion that resulted from impact filled Winter's now tunnel-esque vision, the woman looking for any sign of damage at all.

There was none.

But…

She'd succeeded in getting its attention now, the monster making a sound that might've been a hum. Its disgusting face turned ever so slightly in her general direction before a vicious human-like sneer appeared on its face.

Suddenly, more than several dozen beams shot forth from its body. Its target, her.

Winter all but slumped onto both knees, her aura now completely exhausted and with the resulting strain impacting her ability to physically move. Not like it would do her much good against a barrage such as this, where every single beam was many times larger than any Nevermore she'd encountered. And considering their blast radius as well, evasion wasn't possible even if she'd been at her best.

Even so, she glared past the beams and at the one who'd shot them, defiance in her eyes. Here and now, she'll fall, but she'll be damned if she gives this thing the satisfaction of breaking her spirit.

And so with one final silent plea for Remnant to survive, Winter Schnee died alongside the rest of the city.

* * *

James' facial expression remained tight, not giving away anything to his surrounding crew.

Yet his rage and sadness were undeniable.

He'd received Winter's transmission just moments ago and while only parts of it had been able to come through due to interference, it'd been more than enough.

Salem in that new nightmarish form of hers was in Atlas. It didn't take a genius to know what was now going on there in his home kingdom – death, destruction, despair.

Salem was no doubt laying waste to all that was there with maddening glee on that warped face of hers.

His hands, currently balled into fists, trembled with such fury that it was a wonder to even himself that he hadn't started punching holes in the surrounding walls.

But his rage was tempered by discipline, which was being pushed to its limits. But it was aided by a growing fear as well.

If pushed to the absolute limit, his flagship can travel from home base back in Atlas to Vale – or vice versa as was the situation right now – in just a little under seven hours. Yet Salem had crossed a similar distance in a matter of _minutes_ , putting her speed in a league of its own.

Chasing her down would prove impossible should she decide to take off like that again. And knowing her desire to stomp all the kingdoms into dust, it'd only be a matter of time until such a thing happens.

But until then…

"She likes to play with her food," he muttered under his breath.

Yes, that fit the bitch to a T. She'll definitely take her sweet time leveling the entire kingdom before moving onto the next one, just so she can fully revel in her power and the negativity it would bring out in the people.

She'll take things slow, for better or worse. Which meant he had some kind of timeframe to work with… but would it be enough? Moreover, would it even be worth the risk?

No. In all honesty, he couldn't say it was. Every second wasted was another life lost and that was being generous.

Other ways would have to do, if only to slow Salem down in some way.

"How many people can you make contact with?" the general demanded of his crew.

"Excluding our forces back home, we can still send and receive transmissions without any trouble to our allies in the other kingdoms," spoke one of them, his face pained by the knowledge that contacting their fellow soldiers back in Atlas was likely because they were dead. This was something that was mirrored in all of the other crewmembers as well, their military discipline just barely hanging on in the face of the threat Salem posed.

"Let them know of this… recent development," James uttered. "Tell them all that this takes precedence."

"But what about the rest of the Grimm?" another crew member asked.

"Naturally, they're to keep fighting back. But if possible, they need to start preparing. Their best fighters, their best weapons… everything they need to simply survive, they need to start getting ready _now_." James all but glared. "Am I clear?"

"Yes sir!"

The ones in charge of communication immediately got to work, leaving James once more to himself to think and to worry.

That was but one thing taken care of and a meager task at best. Just what now was he to do personally?

No answer was coming forth and this hurt him far more than anything else ever could.

* * *

Salem laughed, a sound that echoed for miles on end as she continued her trek forward.

That meager pest back in the city having been dealt with, the monstrous woman had picked up her pace a bit, her twisted mind and heart leading to her feeling oddly giddy, like a young girl.

This was in perfect and horrific contrast to her actions as her nightmarish form stomped forth whilst blasts of aura continued to shoot forth randomly, levelling all that was within sight.

It was very slight, due to being drowned out by the roaring of the resulting explosions, but Salem could distinctly pick out the screams of humanity as she razed the kingdom of Atlas to the ground.

The sounds fulfilled her in a way she'd never known before and her heart begged for more.

She obliged.

She stomped around much more harshly than before, ending whatever survivors remained from her barrage of beams either by being crushed beneath her feet or by sheer virtue of the earth splitting tremors her stomps produced.

The truly unfortunate ones were those that were simply too close to her, her semblance ripping apart anything and everything on the atomic level and merging it with her being.

She'd called forth the Grimm as well following her moving from one city to the next and her beloved creatures of darkness, born from the darkness within humanity, came to her in droves, at which point she made an effort to expand her semblance's effect to absorb them.

A sound of pleasure tore its way from her throat as she could actually feel their strength and mass being added to her own, her power ever rising and her body growing slightly in size every time.

And meanwhile… humanity continued to die all around her. Crying and pleading to whatever higher power they believed in for salvation from her, only to be snuffed out with their pleas unanswered.

Truly, nothing could fulfill her more in these moments.

Not even when some tried to resist their inevitable demise. If anything, the way some of the soldiers here and even some huntsmen and huntresses tried to shoot at her amused her immensely. Did they not know how futile their actions were? How utterly ineffective it was? Can they not see she was being far beyond whatever resistance they could put up?

Really now, the only exceptions were those whose semblances consisted of pure aura in one form or another. Even in her own somewhat fractured state of mind, Salem was capable of acknowledging the fact that as energy, aura wasn't subject to her semblance and could therefore hit her.

Not like it'd do her any harm however.

Nonetheless…

Her mouth opened as wide as was possible and she took a deep breath, her chest expanding to accommodate the sheer amount of her she was taking in.

The kingdom of Atlas, despite its technological superiority to the other kingdoms as well as its dense population, was rather small, possibly the smallest of all the kingdoms really. This was due to the mountains and climate making many areas on the continent impossible to live in and thus forced the entire population into what amounted as one big levelled area to build their homes and other structures.

It wouldn't be much longer before the rest of the kingdom was dealt with, especially with her continuous barrage of beams.

She was beginning to grow marginally bored of the inhabitants here. Time for a change in venue. After finishing them off for good of course.

So taking in the maximum amount of air possible for her, Salem roared.

It was a deafening sound, even to her. Thanks to her body being noticeably larger than when she first started out as well as her greater and ever-growing power, the roar she unleashed proved to be even more powerful and devastating than the one she'd let loose back in Vale.

And the impact of such a roar was immediate.

The constant snowstorms that plagued the kingdom were literally blown away, revealing a clear dark and empty sky above. Mountains and buildings were instantly leveled and even the ground itself was torn up for tens of miles, stretching all the way to the frozen coast of the continent in the east.

As for the people, they practically disintegrated from the sheer force behind her roar, if they were lucky. The unfortunate ones were blown away along with everything else, no doubt little more than smears along the now levelled path.

Her roar lasted for half a minute and Salem made sure to lower her head as much as she could to ensure she blasted the entire land, even moving from left to right slowly to make doubly sure she got everything.

Even after her roar finally came to an end, the ground rumbled and cracked, the sheer force she'd unleashed so great that she must have split the land for miles downwards in some places.

If, by pure chance, some people survived this, well, no big deal. She'll just have to return to be more thorough later.

But alas, the kingdom of Atlas hadn't taken much time at all to level, which was truly something pitiful, but what did she expect of humanity at this point, yes?

In any case… time to move on.

Her wings spread out and began to flap, achieving lift off in a matter of seconds.

Her next destination – Mistral, a kingdom known for its beauty and arts… as well as its dark underside.

Time to see if her presence can perhaps bring that darkness out. It may spice up her fun just a bit.

* * *

For what had to be the millionth time, Jaune tried to force his way out of the ever-tightening barrier Salem had trapped him and Tenebrous in.

And once more his efforts proved to be for nothing.

He could feel his strength growing more and more by the minute. However, as of now, strength still meant nothing when he had no way of properly applying it; the shrinking space he had within this barrier made it impossible for him to maneuver his 'limbs' in any meaningful way.

Tenebrous had returned to his fog-like form of darkness in order to allow a bit more room, but even this action had accomplished nothing of note other than cause the barrier to shrink even more much more quickly. As things now stood, the barrier was small and tight enough to keep a single being such as himself completely pinned while Tenebrous swirled around him just as helplessly.

It would seem that not even the god could find a way out of this barrier.

In response to this predicament, Jaune could only scream, which only echoed within the barrier as it had also trapped a good deal of air from back on the planet when it had first been formed. Not that he or Tenebrous really needed it due to being entities of aura and darkness respectively beyond needing it to actually produce sound.

" _Nonononononono!"_ Jaune was panicking unlike ever before.

Just down below, he could literally see the damage done to the kingdom of Atlas. Salem must have roared or performed an attack that could produce a similar level of destruction. Regardless, the continent had been utterly wasted.

Just how many lives must have been lost down there already?

His 'heart' hurt even thinking of such a thing.

His friend, however, remained silent in the wake of this situation even though Jaune could clearly tell that Tenebrous had been watching as well.

The lack of any verbal response from the Power worried him even more. Normally, the god always had something to say regarding the situation. And while not every idea was particularly smart – not like he could claim to be any better in this regard – the god had never once been truly speechless before in situations somewhat like this.

He needed to talk to Tenebrous. Needed to try and come up with some way to break out of this barrier. The world needed the two of them back down there, even if Salem was still clearly much stronger than either of them now.

" _Tenebrous, what do we do?"_ Jaune asked of his friend immediately. _"You tend to have a better feel for this kind of thing than me. Any sort of weakness we can exploit?"_

The pitch-black fog around him didn't answer, at least not immediately. Instead, Tenebrous in his fog-like form, proceeded to swirl about slowly before coming to a sort of halt.

" _Tenebrous…?"_

 _There's no way for us to break out of this, Jaune._

The god's answer was projected straight into Jaune's mind and those words, spoken in a matter-of-fact tone, was enough to make the aura being cease in his struggling from the shock.

Jaune could only look at the black fog in complete amazement.

" _W-What do you mean?! There has to be a way to-!"_

 _There isn't._

There was a pause.

 _Not as you currently are, that is._

Once more, Jaune could only remain still and silent in the face of such words. This gave his friend the time to continue speaking.

 _Had I still retained my full might, this barrier would have done nothing to stop me. Not even Salem as she currently is would've been much of a match for me. However, a vast majority of my power had to be sacrificed in order to start and accelerate your ascension process back then. As I am now, I'm a nonfactor._

 _However, the same cannot be said about you. Your power is still growing steadily… but not quickly enough. In order to break this barrier and return in time to defeat Salem, your full might will be needed._

" _But how am I supposed to speed up the process?"_ Jaune asked, now latching onto every word his friend spoke. Given the situation, it was a better idea than none at all, even if Jaune silently admitted to himself having some misgivings.

 _You won't be speeding up the process, Jaune. Rather, I will._

Tenebrous' fog form began to shift around until the god's red 'eyes' appeared within the pitch-black form, staring at Jaune in a way that the young man turned aura being couldn't decipher.

 _It'll require all the power I have left in order to do so… as well as my very being itself._

If Jaune still had eyes, they would've widened considerably right now. And with reason. What Tenebrous was essentially saying is that… _"You'll die as a result?"_

 _For lack of a better way to put it… yes._

" _No. No way! We're not doing this!"_ Jaune replied indignantly.

 _But we must. You're the only one who can stop Salem now… as well as take her place._

His long string of protests halted before it can even begin. Jaune simply couldn't reply to that one bit. Thankfully, Tenebrous was quick to explain.

… _I'm sorry, Jaune. All this time, you likely thought that we'd find a way to defeat Salem without killing her perhaps. Or maybe that your sister would somehow take over for her. But this was the one thing I actually lied about Jaune. From the very beginning, you would be the one to take over._

"… _But I'm not the Mind. I don't have any of the characteristics of one!"_

 _Ah, but you do. To be the Mind requires a great deal of will, great enough to enforce one's self over the Grimm. Salem naturally has that kind of will, but now so do you. After all… to maintain your aura body the way you have been doing so far isn't exactly something that can be done so easily._

Jaune was speechless.

 _This current form of yours is a transitional one, if I had to use a word for it. From the very beginning, you were more than just an Apostle of myself, but rather my very hope for someone who can take the place of myself and my other half. Although, you being my Apostle naturally meant you had a far greater attunement to being the Power rather than the Mind. But now it's time for you to fully ascend and become what you were always meant to be._

"… _And just what would that be?"_ His mind beginning to feel overloaded from what he was so suddenly being told, Jaune could only reply in a quiet voice.

 _A savior, Jaune. A savior of all. Through your hand, you can eventually guide humanity to being whole once again._

" _With the Grimm under my thumb… just like with Salem,"_ he muttered.

 _You and Salem are like night and day in terms of personality and desires. Never compare yourself to her, Jaune. Alas, we're wasting time here – look, she's already started to wreak havoc in Mistral._

Sure enough, the god was right. A quick glance back at the world below showed the atmosphere itself being affected by Salem's growing might right above the northern most part of Mistral. The visible devastation was quick to start working its way down south and to the east, where most of Mistral's population was at.

Such a sight was enough to make Jaune begin unconsciously struggle again, trying to force the barrier open. But it was to no avail.

Furthermore, he could feel Tenebrous look at him as if a point was being made in his futile actions.

" _Just confirm one thing for me – is this truly the only way?"_ he asked quietly in the end. From the start, he sort of knew deep down that a time would come where Tenebrous would no longer be around. But never did he entertain the thought that such a being would actually die, much less die just for him to achieve his full potential.

… _Yes._

Tenebrous sounded sorrowful.

 _I'm sorry. But it truly is the only way. For whatever it is worth, I'd initially thought things would play out differently than they have so far._

Jaune could only give his friend a sedated nod in response. _"Then what do I have to do?"_ He'd truly love to continue arguing the point, but like Tenebrous just said, time was of the essence. Every second counted now more than ever.

The time to argue ended long before it ever even began, really. Didn't mean he had to like it deep down, though. But neither was it an excuse to prolong things.

 _Remember how much I stressed strengthening your body? It was all for this exact moment. Your aura is so immense and powerful that it would tear apart your physical self on a subatomic level, which ordinarily would mean it'd never survive._

 _But thanks to your training and my own efforts to strengthen the body down to the last particle of it, it managed to stay together – you can't see it, but as your body disintegrated, the very particles that made it up continued to circle around you, waiting to reform once the time was right._

 _So while I merge with your very soul to fully draw out your aura for good, it'll be up to you to will your body back together again. It will be tough to do – your particles will all but insist on remaining apart due to the sheer intensity of your current self – but once you fully pull it back together, it should stay together since, ironically, your very soul has been pouring aura into the particles themselves to age them._

" _A-age them? Is that even possible?"_

 _In a world such as this, where the darkness of humanity has taken form, is such a thing truly that shocking? But yes, it's very much possible. When your body reforms, it will be in its physical prime, fully capable of withstanding the usage of your full strength._

 _This will take a few minutes to fully accomplish, so we must start now. I don't know if the process will cause you any sort of discomfort, however, so prepare yourself._

" _...Alright then,"_ Jaune began as he glanced to the world below once more. The path of destruction Salem was leaving behind seemed to be growing faster now. _"Let's do this… and thank you too. For everything."_

Had it not been for Tenebrous entering his life, Jaune couldn't even fathom how things would've turned out for him. Especially during the Trial. Would he have been able to do some good, save and protect others from the Grimm? Or would he have died, never knowing just what he could've been capable of and how much more good he could have ultimately accomplished.

It was a thought that honestly scared him. And in turn, made him all the more grateful for the being he called a friend.

And as such, all he could do as Tenebrous' fog-like form began to enter the very core of his own form and dissipate, was thank the god for all that he's done. He hoped his gratitude was somehow reaching the Power, even as he proceeded to remain silent for the process.

Things could have certainly been done differently, done far more intelligently and better overall… but Jaune found himself cherishing how things played out, if only for the time it had given him to spend with Tenebrous.

As Tenebrous' form entered him completely, already feeling a change beginning within him, Jaune swore he could feel Tenebrous' emotional state as the god's consciousness steadily began to fade.

 _And thank you as well, Jaune… my emotions may not have developed that much but know… that you'll always have my friendship and gratitude._

With those words resonating from Tenebrous within Jaune's mind, the god finally began to fade away.

And the process to fully achieve his full might truly began.

Out of respect for his now fading friend, Jaune focused his very will as much as he possibly could, a sensation akin to tears forming at the corner of his 'eyes.'

He wouldn't let his friend's passing end up being senseless.

* * *

When the Grimm had suddenly begun to retreat, the residents of Mistral's many towns and villages had thought it most odd, but were more than ready to embrace respite, no matter how brief it may be.

However, while many did anticipate the Grimm making a comeback in some form, they never would've imagined the nightmarish sight that had so suddenly landed and begun stomping its way towards and through their homes-.

A monstrosity bearing draconic and womanly features, pitch black and red over most of its body like a Grimm while the rest looked almost like human skin, but deathly white. A Glasgow grin that extended down the neck, revealing innumerable teeth. Massive horns on the very sides of the face that curved outwards. And two massive red eyes that looked down on them all.

A monstrosity that was easily two hundred meters in size and exuded a primal fury and darkness that caused all that looked upon it to feel absolute despair.

This despair was somehow only further enhanced when the beast had actually started to move and go on the attack, a multitude of energy blasts firing out from its body and levelling everything within sight.

The monster roared in dark triumph, a sound that filled the ears of everyone for miles on end right before they were blown away. It was the sound of the end of the world and it would haunt these poor souls well into the afterlife.

The monster continued its trek forward, seeming to head for Haven Academy.

Along the way, everything was utterly crushed before its might, either through the blasts it continued to let out or literally underfoot. And for the very unlucky ones, those that were just far enough away to not be stomped on and close enough to avoid being blasted, they seemed to be viscerally ripped apart until they were little more than molecules and absorbed into the massive beast.

People, the ones that weren't paralyzed by fear, screamed and ran as fast as they could and as far as they could. They all died.

The ones who found courage within themselves to try to fight back roared out a battle cry… and died before they could accomplish anything.

Mistral's police force, which had long since been mobilized to combat the Grimm that the townspeople couldn't, brought all arms to bear and opened fire, conservation of ammunition completely done away with in the face of such a massive and outright almighty creature. They just barely managed to last longer than the others.

Huntsmen and huntresses that had been spread throughout the land had responded to the unspoken call, especially when it became notable that the Grimm that had retreated had actually been running towards this thing, being absorbed by it. These warriors, much like the police force, held nothing back, firing every last bit of ammo they had. Those that had semblances that could attack from long range all but abused them, dishing out one attack after another just to try even slowing the creature down.

Everything proved ineffective – makeshift weapons, bullets, missiles, grenades, Dust, and more all failed to make it even close to this beast. The only things that seemed to make actual contact were certain semblances.

Pure aura appeared to be the only thing capable of making it to the creature without simply disappearing, a fact that was quick to be spread by these desperate people to anyone and everyone capable of listening, be it in person or over a radio.

It did little to change the situation, however. People died all the same and in droves, the blasts that the monster was firing reaching further and further out.

Its steps were slow, but its size meant it could cover distances that would take a person much longer to cross. And with every step taken, the destruction grew as its strength seemed to grow, seismic tremors tearing apart the land.

Within several minutes of its arrival upon Mistral's land, the path of chaos and death it had created looked like a scene right out of hell and was vast enough for those at Haven Academy to see from a distance. Even the sky above had darkened, lightning storms being generated seemingly as a mere result of the monster's very presence.

It was a sight that terrified the town directly around Haven as well as the academy's students and teachers.

Its headmaster, Leonardo Lionheart, was also no exception to this growing fear. But unlike his students and staff, he was doing a better job at hiding, albeit not by much.

"My god… is this how it all ends?" the headmaster muttered to himself with a tremble in his voice. His lion tail swayed behind him frantically, a sight that was at odds with his more muted expression. It was also a sign that he was thinking just as frantically to those that knew him personally.

As of now, he stood atop the tallest structure that Haven had, which provided him with perhaps the best sight possible of the incoming beast.

It had ceased firing that endless barrage of energy, sparing his academy the quick and undignified death of being blasted into nothingness, but this only worried him more rather than put him at ease.

That it had stopped doing so meant it may very well be aware of what this place was… and therefore, it wanted to enjoy crushing them all as slowly as it could manage.

Such a thought made him shudder almost uncontrollably. Whatever this thing is, it's clearly intelligent, to a degree that no other Grimm had demonstrated thus far. And that was saying something considering how the Grimm had been acting up until now.

The sneer that formed on its face as it seemed to look directly at him only confirmed this.

Such a sight nearly made the headmaster wet himself. It also simultaneously forced him to take action.

"Prepare to attack!" he cried out, just loud enough for all on the academy grounds to hear. "Those that can attack with only aura, ready yourselves!"

The news that aura attacks could bypass whatever sort of ability this creature had was something that had reached him just a moment or so ago, just in time for this thing's appearance. He intended to make as much use out of this as was possible.

In response to his command, a number of students and teachers took to the top of Haven's many structures – the ones that could attack with only aura in some form or another. As for the rest of the people here, they prepared their weapons' gun forms. Even if bullets essentially did nothing to this thing, they weren't about to simply sit back and watch.

Were he capable of it too, Leonardo would've joined the main attackers as well, but didn't. He wasn't capable of attacking with his aura in such a way and his own weapon's range made him more suited to mid and close-range combat rather than the long range needed to even scratch such a behemoth. He felt ashamed that he, Haven's headmaster, couldn't do much more than this, but it was the hand being dealt right now. He'd have to simply make the most of it.

The creature took one more lumbering step forward, this action putting now just right outside the town below. A dangerous move to be sure, but a needed one – even if it was massive, that didn't mean their attacks were going to extend that far and hit it.

But now?

"OPEN FIRE!" he bellowed at a volume and in a voice not even he knew he possessed. It was enough to instantly make everyone obey.

An instant later, streams of aura and a hail of bullets and rockets filled the air, the coalescence of sound all but rendering him and no doubt the others deaf temporarily.

These attacks crossed the distance between them and their target in a matter of microseconds. Bullets and rockets prematurely exploded before even making contact with the creature's skin. As for the aura attacks, coming in the form of spheres or continuous beams, they struck true.

But as Leonardo expected, it did little if nothing at all; the creature took one more step forward, unperturbed by the assault.

No, if anything, it seemed almost… amused. The way its chest and shoulders rumbled as well as the slightest twitches of its neck and mouth made it look like it was trying to hold back a laugh.

It didn't take a genius to tell that this would be futile. By all rights, he should call off the assault right now before they all exhaust themselves and beat a retreat.

Yet Leonardo couldn't find it in him to give such an order. He wouldn't give this monstrosity the satisfaction of seeing them run. Not like running would do them much good anyways given its size and range with those blasts it can generate.

It was either make a stand now or not at all. And he would not let himself and most importantly his students and staff go down in history looking like cowards.

"Spread out! Move across the mountains, attack it from its sides!" he yelled. As of now, they all were concentrating their fire on the creature's front. While he highly doubted it had any kind of physical weakness, the only way to be sure would be to try attacking it from any and every direction possible.

This was something the others seemed to understand, for they moved with both haste and purpose.

But it was at this exact time that the beast began to do more than just move.

Its tail, almost hilariously long even for its size, moved with a speed that he didn't think such a massive creature should ever be allowed to possess. The appendage swung directly at the entire mountain range to the left of the academy. And although it didn't directly make contact, the sheer amount of force put behind such a move was enough to level the mountain anyways.

The air pressure behind such a blow blew everyone that had been heading for that area back. Even those that weren't even close to the affected zone such as himself got sent flying through the air, their normally nimble selves unable to land properly due to how strong of a wind it was.

Leonardo hit the ground hard, his aura protecting him from injury for the most part, though that didn't make the sudden impact hurt much less. He groaned as he quickly got to his feet, just barely aware of others nearby doing the same.

But just as he stood back up and looked, the monster was already swinging its tail again and this directly at the town below.

He wasn't sure if he screamed or not, but Leonardo was vaguely aware that his mouth was open in shock just before the resulting air pressure wiped out the town below in the blink of an eye. Then the air pressure struck the base of the mountain Haven was founded upon, the mountain itself _breaking_ in the process.

In that instant, Leonardo feared the worst, but this second strike apparently hadn't been as strong as the initial one, the air pressure ceasing to blast through the mountain and somehow traveling upwards, blowing away entire portions of the academy grounds that overlooked the area directly below.

The students and staff that had been there when the air pressure struck got blasted straight into the air, the attack so strong that Leonardo could see their auras get instantly broken. And that was only for the lucky ones – the far more unfortunate ones… by god, the way their bodies literally broke or were otherwise lacerated into oblivion would haunt Leonardo until the grave and beyond.

When the air pressure finally died down and the beast seemed to cease in its sudden activity, an unnatural silence immediately filled the entire area as everyone that remained simply looked upon the results the creature's two attacks had.

Leonardo could literally see whatever hope and resistance many of them had in their eyes simply die right then and there. Just like that, their spirits had been beaten and broken.

The monster then seemed to let out a sound that pierced through the silence a knife through a jugular, the sound so loud that everyone recoiled as if physically struck.

Leonardo recognized the sound for what it was: a snicker.

This damned thing was mocking them.

And there was absolutely nothing any of them could do about it.

For a good minute, the snickering continued with the remaining people and Leonardo himself unable to find it in themselves to move anymore.

But then things took another sudden change when off in the distance, a light seemed to appear.

A silver light, coming from one of the very few nearby towns that this monster had overlooked for one reason or another, likely just dumb luck.

The silver light was somewhat dim at first and small, but seconds later, it grew rapidly in size and even brightness, forcing Leonardo and the others to cover their eyes lest they risk going blind, even though the distance and position meant it should've been physically impossible for the light to reach them like this.

It was as if a presence had made itself known to them and by extension to the monster before them, for the creature hissed as the light enveloped its entire form.

A few seconds later, the light dimmed and faded and as Leonardo risked a look, the very first thing he saw was the monster's entire form smoking ever so lightly, as if someone had tried to fry it.

He put two and two together immediately; the light had done this.

But whatever damage it had done to the monster was minimal at best, the smoke and scorched smell being the only indicators that any sort of actual damage had been inflicted. The monster itself seemed to not be in pain, however, merely enraged and the way its expression twisted into something so dark and cruel made Leonardo feeling rather glad to not have that look at him or his students.

The monster turned around and as it did so, energy began to gather within its open mouth. Then before Leonardo knew what to do next, the monster unleashed its attack.

A beam of pure power was unleashed from the monster, so powerful that even though its back was now turned to Haven, the 'recoil' was enough to tear up parts of the surrounding landscape. As for the beam itself, it traveled towards the town the silver light had originated from, enveloping the entirety of it in a split second before continuing to travel onwards towards the west.

By the time the beam died down half a minute later, Leonardo had lost track of where it was going. It'd simply been that fast. But there was no mistaking the level of destruction it had caused, the ground it had traveled across now nothing more than molten earth.

"Holy shit…" Leonardo heard someone mutter numbly. Not quite the words he'd personally use here, but the general sentiment was one he definitely shared.

To say that they had no chance against this creature would probably be putting things mildly.

Now it was turning back around, causing him to prepare giving orders again. But unlike before, the monster now seemed to be deep in thought of all things. About what, the headmaster of Haven couldn't even begin to fathom.

What mattered right now, however, is that the monster didn't look as interested in attacking as it had been before. Instead, it now turned its head around as if looking for something.

Then several seconds later, the beast turned around and began to actually walk away.

Yet Leonardo wasn't about to count his blessings just yet. Especially when the thing's massive tail started to slowly swing towards the mountain.

At this point, Leonardo could only yell out one simple order. "EVACAUTE!"

Bellowing this out at the very top of his lungs, the surviving students and staff quickly sought to obey -.

-But not before the tail smashed right into the mountain, causing it to now collapse.

All Leonardo could do as Haven gave way was scream.

Then moments later, his screaming ceased as did that of the others that had cried out as well.

* * *

Salem inwardly huffed.

She'd wanted to take a bit more time playing around with Haven and its populace, but following that burst of silver eyes power, she'd reluctantly decided to change things up. This is why she'd decided to simply do away with the academy in one move as opposed to drawing things out.

Against her in this form, the silver eyes were little more than mild irritants and barely at that. But the same could not be said of her precious Grimm. Against most types of Grimm, the silver eyes were instant-kills. Their deaths meant her having less friends and moreover having less to add to her current form.

Very well then!

She'll just focus on the other towns and villages here in Mistral first! Then once she's certain any and all remaining silver eyed people were wiped out here, she'll hunt down the maidens. Based off what she recalled seeing from her Grimm, one of them was keeping busy combating the Grimm in Vacuo.

Ah… and if she remembered right…

She sneered.

Jaune Arc was from Vacuo. That meant his family was there too.

She resolved to make sure she paid them some very special attention.

But first…

Her entire body glowed as she channeled aura through it. Then from every pore she now had, beams of pure aura fired outwards, curving as they all traveled far across the kingdom of Mistral.

For as far as her eyes could see, the horizon was dyed with her power, each beam having packed enough power to completely vaporize the largest of islands. Against such might, there wasn't a single town or village that could possibly remain after being struck.

Nonetheless, she kept on unleashing one barrage after another.

The time for playing around has ended for now. Until she'd gotten rid of the nuisances, she'll have to take things just a bit more seriously.

So for the next several minutes, she walked southwest, heading for the coast while continuing to unleash her power. In the process, she just kept on growing, her semblance tearing up and absorbing all that was near her.

She smirked with such viciousness that her many teeth grinded against one another.

With Mistral having swiftly been reduced to a sea of flames and cries of agony and despair, she considered her work here done for the time being.

Readying her wings, Salem looked towards her next land of victims well before she even started to fly -.

Vacuo.

* * *

Ozpin's hands were clenched together to the point of drawing blood.

Just a few moments ago, a massive beam of aura had all but appeared out of nowhere off in the distance from Vale. But as far away as the beam had been from Vale and Beacon, it did little to relieve him in any form.

No, if anything, it enraged him.

He had a great grasp of geography. Over where that beam had struck had lied a good handful of towns, spread out just enough to remain independent, but close enough for the residents to practically consider each other neighbors.

…The size and power of that beam, especially when it had exploded now no doubt meant those towns were no longer in this world. And of course, that meant the people there were very much no longer alive, assuming the Grimm horde hadn't initially wiped them out much earlier in the day.

"Salem…!" he growled out through gritted teeth, his longstanding patience having likewise long since met its end.

Over the decades he's been alive thanks to his own semblance slowing down his aging process, Ozpin had learned how to rein in his emotions, to view things from as objective a point of view as was possible. This was a self-taught lesson that had begun following Salem's burning at the stake all that time ago, a sort of self-inflicted punishment one could call it.

Even earlier, when Salem had been here herself, he'd strived to keep as level-headed as he could manage.

But following his former friend's transformation and subsequent leaving to undoubtedly massacre the other kingdoms first to save him and Vale for last, his control had slipped dramatically.

Now his rage very much showed on his face, causing the others who would've otherwise been asking him what to do now to keep a bit of distance from him until he calms down. That wasn't going to happen any time soon.

Besides, against Salem as she currently is, just what even was there to do? What defense can they even possibly mount to protect them from her increasing power? What weapon or ability can any of them conjure up to do more than just nick her?

These were questions with the same exact answer: none.

They weren't simply fighting a losing battle; that implied they had some meager chance at winning. No, this was futilely trying to survive the apocalypse.

And yet…

"Oz…" Qrow suddenly spoke up, the alcohol loving huntsman being the only one willing to approach him right now. "I think it goes without saying, but we're all fucked here. You think we should try evacuating the city or something? Cause the Grimm are no longer coming our way anymore."

Evacuate, huh? Not a bad idea, but where to? And would they even get all that far before Salem finally comes back? And it's not as if they didn't have any injured to tend to first before they could be safely moved.

These thoughts must have somehow showed on his face, for Qrow sighed and rubbed the back of his head tiredly. "Yeah, I figured as much too."

"There must be something we can do though," Glynda now spoke up as she neared them.

"But what?" Ozpin said a bit more snappishly than he'd meant to. "If I'm correct, that beam just a moment ago had come from well across the sea… from Mistral's direction. Considering Salem initially flew north towards Atlas, it would seem she's already gotten through them both."

His words were enough to render them silent.

If Salem really did steamroll Atlas and likely Mistral by now, then it wouldn't be long at all before she comes back to wipe them out.

The only kingdom that remained, however, until Salem returned was Vacuo…

Ozpin closed his eyes and removed his glasses, massaging the spot in between his eyes in a futile attempt to calm himself. Upon finishing this, he opened his eyes back up, not bothering to put his glasses back on as he stared off into the distance.

While it definitely sounds arrogant even to himself to think this, he had a hand in this entire thing. His brashness and ignorance from back then had resulted in him selling out Salem's secret to the others, had resulted in her burning at the stake and ultimate renouncement of her humanity.

Had he been a far more understanding person, perhaps Salem could've grown to be the 'hope' that the Mind had desired. Perhaps this Trial could have turned out far more differently had an ultimately benevolent Salem been at the helm rather than the embittered and hateful woman she'd become.

Again, this sounded quite arrogant of him to think, but it was something he couldn't help but think nonetheless.

It was high time he tried to truly pay for his mistakes.

"Qrow, Glynda," he said in a noticeably calmer voice than before. "I want you both to take charge. For now, just focus on patching up the injured and doing a head count of who's still able and willing to fight in case more Grimm get sent our way. If any defenses we initially had up are still relatively intact, get them patched up too."

Both glanced at him inquisitively yet said nothing immediately in response. "And what about you?" asked Glynda.

Throwing aside his glasses and stomping them underfoot, Ozpin readied his cane.

"I'm going to give our enemy a bit of a welcoming party in Vacuo," he said in a voice so utterly calm and contrasting with his emotions that he doubted the words he just spoke registered with those that heard him.

And by the time Qrow and Glynda seemed to comprehend what he'd just said, it was already too late for them – using his semblance to its utmost limit to vastly accelerate his own 'time' and therefore 'speed,' Ozpin had taken off.

Off towards Vacuo to await his former friend.

* * *

 **Not the longest chapter for this Trial so far, I know, but I felt it best to end it here lest I let myself get too carried away and drag things out for far longer than I should. Whether or not this is a good decision still depends on one's point of view, though. So naturally some of you may disagree.**

 **That said, the fic is really nearing its end now. Vacuo is pretty much where things are really going to hit its climax so I'd say maybe another two chapters or even three AT THE MOST until the epilogue of the story.**

 **Wow, feels kind of surreal to type that for some reason. Probably because it feels like this Trial could be stretched out for far longer despite the plans I'd set for it well in advance.**

 **In all honesty, the very concept of the Trial for this fic has a lot of potential – if I'd so desired, I could've written probably a dozen or so chapters more detailing the two day siege of Grimm upon all humanity, narrating it from various points of view… but naturally, I vastly cut down on that since, despite the various points of views I've given throughout this fic, Jaune is ultimately the protagonist and so the events will stay generally focused around him and his friends/allies/etc. This is why the Trial has played out the way it has so far.**

 **So yeah, I'm willing to admit there was quite a good bit of potential that I'm ignoring with this concept, but I hope you guys are willing to forgive me for that. And for taking so long to get this chapter posted despite its relative shortness compared to the previous few chapters – I'd gotten sick recently and while I got over the fever somewhat quickly, the phlegm and odd temperature swings of my body caused me to work much slower than normal due to how distracting/irritating it was.**

 **But I'm all better now so hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to work on once I get started on it.**

 **Hope none of you guys get sick like I did and if you do, hope you get better soon!**

 **Until next time, everyone. Take care!**


	50. Chapter 50

Out of curiosity, do any of you watch the show The Good Doctor? If so, what do you guys think of it? As someone with two autistic brothers, I find it rather inspiring – shows that they truly can be what they want to be in the future, should they truly desire it. That said, the sheer number of asshole characters in the show is kind of staggering. Seriously, the number of genuine nice main characters can be counted on one hand. And while it is nice of the show to give us multiple sides of these same jerkass characters (after all, everyone in real life has multiple sides to them, so yay realism), it's still pretty damn hard to feel any sympathy for them, at least for me. So again, your opinions?

On another note, saw Black Panther and loved it! I believe I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I've yet to be disappointed by any MCU film! Killmonger in particular was amazing – the little subtle nuances he was given by both Michael B. Jordan and the script just blew me away. Klaue was a fun villain too but lacked the same kind of depth that Killmonger had, though Klaue certainly had some potential. And the sheer amount of detail that was poured into making Wakanda what it is blew me away, from how the high-tech stuff Vibranium melded with their traditions to how said traditions also played a significant part in the entire narrative. The realism behind Killmonger's past and his goals definitely made it feel so much more personal too.

God, now to just wait until Infinity War… man, that is going to be an awesome day when it comes out. But I will admit to worrying slightly about Antman and the Wasp. While the first one turned out great and I have equally high hopes for this one, the very fact that it'll be coming out after Infinity War yet with the events of the film occurring sometime after Civil War yet before Infinity War has me worried about what kind of reception it'll get overall. Oh well, only time will tell!

Now then, onto the chapter!

Chapter 50

Salem arrived in Vacuo the same way she'd arrived in the other kingdoms – with an entrance.

All but divebombing from the sky, she hit the ground front feet-first with such force that when combined with her mass resulted in a shockwave that surely rattled the entire continent.

And yet… it didn't feel anywhere near as satisfying as the other times had thus far.

To be expected given the landscape. Unlike the other three kingdoms, where settlements and cities were much closer and had some kind of pattern to how they were spread out, Vacuo lacked any such pattern, with settlements and the very few actual towns and cities being spread out and formed in areas where it was possible to maintain stable lifestyles for the people that comprised these settlements, areas that were few and in between for the most part.

As a result, Salem highly doubted she was able to cause that much harm with her landing.

Oh well, it's nice to have some measure of challenge. Besides, her precious Grimm were still on the attack. All she'd have to do is simply follow the noise and proceed from there.

So she began to take several massive steps forward -.

-Only to stop not long thereafter.

She looked down at the spot before her as she'd headed west, her eyes widening in genuine surprise as one person and one person only dared to stand before her.

A face she recognized in an instant and earned a deafening growl from her throat.

Ozpin.

* * *

Ozpin, having arrived just as Salem had barely begun her trek, maintained a neutral expression even as his body all but screamed at him to rest for a moment. While his semblance can grant him an immense boost in speed when pushed to the limit, the strain it puts on his body was not insignificant. A minute of rest was needed for the strain to subside, but he wasn't about to sit down and do just that.

However, even while standing, the strain will go away, though it will take longer than a minute to do so. So time for him to see just how long he can drag this out before Salem finally attacks. The longer he can do that, the longer the settlements in Vacuo will remain untouched by Salem here.

"Did you really think I'd just let you continue to do as you pleased?" he then said, making sure to speak loudly enough for Salem to hear him. Given the size difference between them, this would surely be a tough order to fulfill provided her vastly improved abilities doesn't extend to her senses.

A second later, it seemed that Salem really could hear him without much trouble, for she snorted in direct response to his words before taking half a step forward.

Ozpin made no attempt to move, having made sure to stand far enough in front of Salem as to ensure he was both visible to her and well enough away from her to avoid being affected by that death field her semblance had created.

"…You know, over all these years, I've regretted what I'd done to you," he began in a much softer voice. "Truly, I have. Of all the things I've ever wished to have the power to change, that day where I sold you out to the others is one I wished I could change the most."

He closed his eyes as emotions within him warred against one another. But this only last a few seconds before opening his eyes, his resolve clear as day for Salem to see. "But now? Now, I no longer feel that way at all, Salem. That's right, I've done away with my regrets. How could I not, when you've become what you are now."

That seemed to have some kind of impact on Salem, for her eyes seemed to widen quite a bit, her massive frame going unnaturally still.

"You've become too filled with hate. Or rather, you allowed yourself to become enveloped by your own seething hatred, closed off from all others for so long that it was honestly inevitable." He paused. The strain on his body was almost gone now. Soon, he'd be able to move without issue again. Just a bit longer… "I shall make no excuses for the world today – the same things that plagued humanity back then still plague it now… but things are still much better today than they ever were before. People have changed since then, Salem, and continue to change slowly yet surely for the better."

He narrowed his eyes and pointed his cane at her accusingly. "And now look at you – a monster both figuratively and literally, hellbent on crushing humanity for something that the most recent generations can't possibly be accounted for. Revenge? A just cause? Call it whatever you want, old friend, but all you're doing is lashing out!"

Salem's teeth audibly grinded against one another for several seconds before she roared at him. And what a roar it was. It was a good thing his semblance allowed him to channel his aura to create a barrier otherwise the roar may have very well blown him far, far away. Even then, the barrier he hastily formed just as Salem roared rattled and shuddered under the force, cracking in the process.

Thankfully, the roaring ceased just before the barrier could fully give way. Shakily, from the sheer impact of the roar, Ozpin stood back up to his full height and proceeded to meet Salem's vicious glare with one of his own.

"In addition," he began as if nothing had just happened. "You've taken on such a form… and for what? So you could look down on others, to feel superior? Or does looking people in the eyes now make you feel bad?"

His words were said tauntingly, perhaps almost childishly so in some respects, but at this point, he'd be willing to say anything and everything to provoke Salem. The strain on his body was now almost completely gone and the more enraged Salem became at him, the less attention she'd pay to the various settlements that made up Vacuo.

Besides, he felt he had a point there – back when she'd still be human, Salem had been a tall woman, but still had to look up slightly if she wished to look people such as himself in the eyes. Following her merging process with the Grimm, however, she'd simply grown bigger and bigger so that she'd have to physically look down on others. This was especially the case in her current form. And as much as she's changed since he'd known her back then, there were surely some parts of her that remained the same… like the inferiority she'd sometimes felt back then, the uncertainty.

Surprisingly, it pained him to play on such old 'wounds,' but for the sake of the world, he wasn't about to let this stop him.

"Ha… unbelievable. Perhaps deep down, you really are just the same as you were back then." He shook his head, feigning disbelief. "Perhaps I have nothing to fear, after all, if you can't even bring yourself to look me in the eyes when you kill me."

At this point, he was genuinely goading her into doing just that. The power difference between them was such that he held no illusions about his chances against her in direct combat now, especially when Salem could just squish him or obliterate him with a roar or aura beam.

But to his surprise, when he looked back up at Salem, it was to see a surprisingly complicated expression on that warped face of hers. Dare he even think it, she looked to be contemplating his words.

However, the anger from earlier was still there but now with something akin to a twinkle of bemusement.

Salem was gearing up for something and Ozpin couldn't even begin to fathom what that might be.

Because of this, he was very much on guard when he could all but feel Salem's power at work, the very space directly around her shifting as her semblance went to work.

He was more than a little tempted to go on the attack right there and then, but before he could fully consider any proper course of action, he ended up all but freezing in place when the rippling that occurred in the very space itself now began to occur all across Salem's entire body.

She was using her semblance directly on _herself._

Such a thought and sight boggled Ozpin's mind so much that he dropped his guard ever so slightly as the rippling sensation then gave to way to sort of barrier surrounded the monstrous woman, transforming into one of pure darkness that prevented him from seeing whatever Salem was doing now.

The one thing he did manage to see before the barrier became impossible to see past was how Salem's entire body seemed to start… shrinking?

Whatever was going on, it was now enough for Ozpin to do away with his bravado and leap back several meters in one smooth motion, his cane at the ready in case of a sudden attack. His strain now done away with, he could afford to move at full speed again with having to fear for overreaching himself.

A few seconds later, the barrier began to shrink at a gradual pace, though it picked up a bit in speed overtime, until it had gone from being several times larger than a mountain to around ten feet in diameter.

An oppressive sensation overcame Ozpin and it was only thanks to his intuition and decades of experience that kept him from doing anything that could be rash.

In a way, perhaps he was right to keep himself from doing so.

The barrier then cracked as if made out of weak glass, an ominous red light seeping out through the small cracks in the otherwise pitch-black shell. Then the barrier shattered completely and with enough force to be more akin to an explosion more than anything else, really.

The broken shards that once made up the barrier went flying in every direction at incredible speeds, forcing Ozpin dodge at the last possible microsecond. Even then, with so many shards sent his way, he couldn't dodge completely unless he was willing to use his semblance to move far, far away. And he was very much unwilling to do so, so he had to settle for using his cane to smash the shards that would have otherwise impaled him.

After this brief display of violence, a hushed and eerie silence then fell upon the entire desolate desert area as Ozpin proceeded to take a few steps forward.

And what he saw rather amazed him.

There, where the barrier had once been, now stood Salem in a new form.

No, perhaps it'd be much more appropriate to say that she'd taken on a humanoid version of her previous monstrous form – the dark red and black flesh that had enveloped her limbs still covered her legs, which functioned and somewhat actually looked like a human's legs, but the feet remained very much malformed, more akin to how the Wyverns' feet looked like. Her front legs, however, had reverted back into arms, the skin black with red veins, and quite beefy due to the sheer amount of mass Salem had added to herself since her initial transformation, the arms muscular and with the fingers being more along the lines of claws than anything else.

Her torso remained quite womanly and nude, though the deathly white skin turned out to be like thick scales all over her entire body, which resulted in Salem appearing to lack private areas. Even then, the once slender woman now sported visible muscle definition, presumably from all the mass she'd merged with. There was an intricate red design across the chest as well, extending downwards along her stomach's sides and ending just a bit above the thighs.

But it was really Salem's face that stood out to Ozpin, the horrid mouth of her previously massive form having remained the same now in this new state, but with parts of it looking to have closed and badly so, resulting in small openings on the side of her neck that revealed the teeth still there, which wriggled with even the slightest breaths she took. The horns that had been on the side of her face were no longer there and have instead seemed to have been replaced by a crown-like design that sat upon her head, made from the same bone-white substance that most Grimm sported. Her white hair, which had been so wild and untamed in her previous state, had changed ever so slightly as well, looking more ethereal than the ghastly appearance of before and fell straight down her back for the most part, though some of it fell straight down her front as well, covering her breasts.

The gentlest of flaps then alerted Ozpin to her wings, which were still massive in comparison to her current size. The wings remained the same in overall design, but now they moved and folded themselves around her lower body, forming a sort of pod that hid her lower half from view.

Up until now, Salem had been keeping herself afloat in the air, just off the ground by several feet. But upon her wings taking on their current pod-like appearance, she landed and the ground shook as several bombs went off. Ozpin nearly lost his balance as a result, having been taken off-guard by this.

But he recovered gracefully and more importantly quickly. And the smallest beads of sweat formed upon his brow from nerves immediately thereafter.

He had no idea what exactly Salem did to make herself this way now, but it was immediately evident that she still retained a good deal of the immense amount of mass she'd absorbed over the course of her rampage. She was heavier than her new appearance would suggest and by more than a significant margin. But what about the rest of the mass then? Where did that go?

Salem began to walk towards him boldly, arrogantly. Her bare feet, just barely visible under her folded wings, all but sunk into the sand thanks to her weight, the ground even shaking a bit with every step she took.

Ozpin let her approach, not wanting to give her reason to attack just yet. Nonetheless, he remained ready to leap back the very instant that death-field of hers appeared again. Judging by the lack of damage being done to the surrounding environment right now, however, it seemed like he might not have to worry about it. Yet.

Several seconds later, Salem finally came to a stop just a few yards away from him. It was at this point that Ozpin realized Salem hadn't quite reverted herself back to her previous size completely – before, she'd stood at around six feet in height while he stood at six foot six. Now in her newest form, she was just as tall as he was, perhaps even an inch taller.

And her eyes… now, they were completely red in color, no longer a distinction between the irises and sclera. Pure energy seemed to bleed right out of them, running down the sides of her face for just an inch or two before simply stopping, forming straight-lined cracks in her scale-like skin.

It certainly made for an ominous appearance and the smirk on her face indicated that she knew this and was very much taking advantage of it.

And then… she spoke.

" **Here I am, Ozpin,"** Salem spoke, her voice no longer like that of a human's, instead a mockery of one's. There was a sense of finality to her voice as well, which demanded all of Ozpin's attention. **"Think I'm too scared to look you in the eyes now?"**

She was looking directly into his eyes as she uttered those words, all but challenging him to dispute the claim.

If anyone else was in his position right now, they'd have been terrified out of their minds right now – the combination of Salem's new appearance, her voice, the look of sheer rage and disdainful amusement in her eyes and the overwhelming presence she now gave off was simply all too much. Even the likes of Qrow and Glynda and even Peter would've trembled before such a visage.

But Ozpin? All he could do, much to his own surprise, was chuckle as if he'd just heard a joke. And as Salem's challenging sneer turned into a frown marred by swiftly growing rage, Ozpin could only let out an actual laugh in response.

"For you to take on this new appearance… did you really do so in direct response to my words?" Ozpin asked. But he already knew the answer. It was enough to make him shake his head in genuine disbelief. "To think that you did so just to throw my words back in my face… it would seem you really are childish."

The look on Salem's face as he spoke was kind of comical, just enough to earn another brief chuckle out of him, but once it faded, his expression turned bittersweet. The reason Salem had this childish aspect to her mentality still was most likely due to the trauma she received that day, her emotional growth stunted. Of course, proceeding to spend the past several decades surrounded only by Grimm likely didn't help much either. Nor would he imagine merging with so many Grimm and other materials did much to change that in a positive way.

Yes, Salem was very much like a child throwing a massive temper tantrum, a deadly one… but there was a reason behind it, even if it was far from a justification in the end.

"Really now," he muttered as he lowered his head. "This really isn't funny at all."

" **Not funny, hmm? Very well then. How about I show you what I find funny,"** spoke the woman.

She made a show of spreading her wings apart, revealing her form in its entirety as she reared back her right fist. She was going to engage him in direct physical combat, it would seem, a shocking turn of events considering her previous way of fighting.

The very instant Salem fully pulled her fist back, Ozpin's instincts went crazy, screaming danger. He swung his cane with both hands at an angle, his movement fluid, sharp, and most importantly minimal as opposed to the wide motion Salem was undoubtedly about to unleash.

Against anyone else, his attack would've landed first, especially with his semblance in effect. But against Salem? He had no such luck.

Faster than even he could perceive, Salem launched her wide swinging punch, feeling her fist slam against his cane.

The resulting impact gave way to a shockwave that blew him back like a ragdoll, but not before his wrist bones nearly snapped under the direct force of the punch. Flying back several dozen meters as if he was weightless, he could scarcely find it in him to shift his center of gravity and land, instead focusing in amazement at how his entire body rattled even in mid-flight.

He ended up smashing headfirst into a hill of sand, which did little to dampen the sheer amount of force he struck the ground with. His aura flashed a bright green as it kicked into overdrive to cushion the force, but to little avail.

Ignoring this, however, Ozpin swiftly turned his tumble into a roll and shot up – just in time to see Salem all but suddenly appear in front of him, a dark grin on her face. She was close, far too close. Unable to properly launch an attack with his cane, he instead lashed out with a short kick to her pelvis in an attempt to knock her away.

But just as the bottom of his shoe made contact, he knew right away he'd made a mistake. Sure enough, he was the one to go stumbling back again, having felt as if he'd tried to budge a few mountains.

"Well that confirms one thing…" he muttered to himself now of all times. It would seem that Salem truly had compressed most of her previous mass into this new form. That meant knocking her back would be an impossibility for him now.

And it was one that she was very well aware of, considering how she laughed. Then she blurred from his sight and the next thing Ozpin knew, her hand enveloped his entire head. Then he found himself being smashed into the ground.

His vision blurred and he nearly even blacked out as he was slammed with a level of power far beyond anything he'd ever been on the receiving end of. But then a vicious knee to his midsection was enough to wake him back up completely, just in time for Salem to toss him straight up into the air.

Oh, how quickly the desert below seemed to just shrink and disappear from view. Not even a full second later, nothing but clouds filled his vision and he proceeded to form a barrier around him just in case.

Sure enough, Salem shot up at him, slamming a shoulder directly into the barrier… and it shattered like glass.

He was allowed just enough time for his eyes to widen in shock and for him to swing his cane at Salem's neck. His strike connected, but did absolutely nothing, instead creaking dangerously upon making contact. Salem herself didn't even budge from the blow.

She grabbed a hold of him by his throat, her claws sinking into his skin on the back of his neck with absolute ease, his aura and own natural durability doing absolutely nothing to stop her immense strength.

His airway being cut off, he could only gasp as Salem pulled him close, her eyes merely inches away from his own.

" **Let's go for a little ride, 'old friend.'"** Salem spat out these words as if they were a curse, but there was a sense of glee about them too.

Then her wings began to flap powerfully and the world around them all but faded away from his vision as Salem began to fly at absurd speeds and only continuing to accelerate.

His sense of distance and direction was thrown out of whack a fraction of a second into the flight. No longer able to tell up from down and left from right, the entire world was little more than a swirl to Ozpin. He coughed and hacked and gagged as Salem's grip tightened even more, what little air he had left being forcibly drawn out of him from the flight. All of his bones creaked and his organs were making sounds that didn't bode well at all either as the flight reached a speed he couldn't possibly achieve even with the full might of his semblance. His body simply wasn't capable of enduring this kind of speed.

Then, things finally seemed to reorient themselves as he was suddenly able make heads and tails of directions again. He then realized quite weakly that they were flying straight up. He could tell by the thinning air and increasing pressure and dropping temperature.

His eyes widened almost comically at this point. Was Salem planning to hurl him out of orbit?

He received an answer a microsecond later when Salem's grip on him suddenly vanished. She'd let go of him just as they both made it into low orbit.

Salem then turned in midair and seemed to levitate in place above him, her wings flapping only once or twice to keep her afloat while he was all but suspended directly below her. Then she laughed as gravity finally reasserted itself over him and he fell.

Ozpin wasn't the kind of man to scream, but in a situation like this, he was feeling inclined to change this particular part of himself. Not that it would do him much good with how little air he had in his lungs and how thin the atmosphere up here was. As a result, he could only open his mouth in a silent cry as he fell at ever increasing speeds.

Then just after falling a good several dozen yards, Salem suddenly reappeared again, flying directly parallel to him for a split second before wrapping her arms around him. She held onto him quite tightly, tightly enough for his ribs and the bones in his arms to start cracking. Then she started to flap her wings even more, picking up speed until they were both essentially divebombing towards the ground below at speeds much greater than even lightning.

At this kind of speed, Ozpin had no doubts as to his chances of survival – he'll die, plain and simple, should he hit the ground at this kind of speed.

As ragged as he'd quickly become, he wasn't about to give up without a fight and so he struggled to break free from Salem's hold as they neared the ground, but to no positive results; she was much stronger than him and her condensed mass wasn't helping matters.

But he had more than one way to struggle.

Concentrating, he formed yet another barrier. But unlike the others ones which formed as a perfect sphere that was a few feet away from his body, this one formed directly over his entire form. After molding it, he swiftly forced it to expand.

By pure dumb luck, Salem hadn't been expecting such a thing and her grip on him was loosened just enough for some breathing room and for him to wiggle his way out.

Also by sheer luck, rather than slam him directly into the ground, Salem had performed an upwards curve so that they'd both been flying parallel to the desert below. So when he broke free of her grasp, he ended up tumbling for an entire mile, which he found much more preferable to directly hitting the ground as a human comet.

Still, his tumble was a painful one due to just how fast this was. His aura took a hell of a beating, however, and by the time he came to a stop, he was amazed he still had some aura left at all.

Shakily, he stood back up, his mind feeling fairly clear now but with his body so wracked by the G-forces it had to endure just now that it would be a while before the effects fully vanished.

This was a length of time Salem wasn't about to give him, obviously.

The monstrous woman landed just several feet away and huffed as she did so. **"Slippery as always, Ozpin. I should've known better."**

"Well, it's to be expected when you play around that much," he retorted as he steadied himself, his cane at the ready.

His words clearly struck a nerve and rightfully so – if Salem so wanted, she could kill him in a veritable instant in any number of ways. But here she was, playfully resorting to direct combat rather than utilize her semblance against him. Hell, a single physical blow with any semblance of her true strength could smear him like nothing, yet here the blows she'd landed on him thus far had clearly left him still intact.

" **How can I not when we have so much to 'say' to one another?"** Salem lowered her wings, no longer seeming keen on flying, but Ozpin remained on guard anyways, for she could change her mind faster than he could react if taken off guard. **"After all, just how many decades has it been since we've seen each other, hmm? It's only natural that we need to 'catch up' after all this time."**

She lunged forward and threw a punch that was just as wild as her previous movements. Her lack of training and experience in physical combat was hilariously obvious. But Ozpin still made it a high priority to take this as seriously as could due to her immense strength. To this end, he dodged the blow by barely an inch, using his semblance only slightly to give him an edge. Even then, the sheer force of the blow was enough to nearly throw him off balance.

Salem, undeterred, threw a vicious hook with her other fist and aimed for his midsection. Ozpin was forced to twist in order to avoid the blow, for it was significantly faster than the initial one. He heard Salem growl and a fraction of a second later, the woman started to unleash one vicious blow after another with increasing speed.

As wild and amateurish as her assault was, it wasn't one Ozpin wished to be particularly close to so he leapt back a good yard or two, but not before having to deflect some of the initial blows with his cane.

He frowned. His cane had been bent from those few hits. Even though he'd tried to merely redirect the hits just a bit and with his remaining aura reinforcing his weapon, Salem's strikes had still dealt considerable to damage it, with cracks and splits running down the entirety of the cane in addition to its bent look now. One more blow, even if it was only a graze, would break his weapon into pieces.

This meant his longtime weapon had only one good hit left in it. So he decided to try making it count for something.

And here came such an opportunity.

Salem leapt at him like a woman possessed, still holding back immensely as to try instilling uncertainty and even fear in his heart no doubt. But he allowed himself to feel nothing of this sort. Instead, he narrowed his eyes as Salem neared quickly. Taking up the appropriate stance, he feigned a defense which then provoked Salem into launching a straight punch directly for his chest.

And he responded in kind as she fell for his ruse. Instead of trying to block the attack like she thought he would, he twisted his entire body, completely avoiding her overextending punch while allowing himself to pour the entirety of his strength and weight into his thrust. He even used his semblance to further enhance the speed of his movements.

It struck true, the tip of his cane burying itself directly in Salem's left eye. Despite how much she weighed, her poor posture combined with still being in midair allowed Ozpin's strike to tilt her and even slightly knock her back, but it took every ounce of power of he could draw out from within.

Even then, he still paid a price for this, his cane finally breaking for good into dozens of useless pieces while the attack in and of itself nearly resulted in his arm being broken since, poor air posture or not, Salem's weight wasn't something he could support for even a split second.

Immediately after delivering the attack, he rolled to the side just before Salem landed where he'd just been. She whirled around, her eyes tracking his movements and they shined with sheer anger. His attack had done essentially no damage despite having struck her eye, at least no physical damage. He certainly wounded her pride, if nothing else.

Seeing that she would no doubt be holding back less from now on, Ozpin quickly kicked as much sand as he could at her in the hopes of obscuring her vision.

But then the sand simply froze in place in midair and then parted around Salem, who dashed at him far more quickly than he could possibly react to.

The realization that the woman was now evidently going to be using her semblance much more liberally was the only thing Ozpin had on his mind just as Salem's right foot came slamming into his chest.

His aura flared all around his body before dissipating, a sign that he was now drained completely of it. His sternum audibly cracked and in a moment of immense self-awareness, Ozpin felt one of his ribs stab into his left lung.

Left breathless, he was flung a great distance, pain and shock wracking him so much that he couldn't even begin to figure out exactly how far he went flying.

However far he went, he ended up apparently going somewhere not so barren, for he ended up slamming into an actual boulder now that had been sticking out of the ground. With no more aura left to cushion blows, he felt the full brunt of the impact as he smacked right side first into said boulder, hard enough to practically shatter it.

He then collapsed to the sandy ground, gasping helplessly. He tried to move and in doing so winced. The boulder hadn't been the only thing to shatter; the bones in his right arm were little more than splinters, or at least that's what it felt like to him.

He let out a moan of genuine pain as he nonetheless tried to get up, too stubborn to simply roll over now. But just as he even began to stand up, a shadow fell over him and before he could move yet another inch, he felt an open hand slam into the back of his head, forcing him back down.

He inhaled, gasped, then choked. More than a little sand had gotten into his mouth and nostrils and combined with the perforated lung and badly damaged sternum and ribs, breathing was no longer possible. It didn't matter how stubborn he was to breath properly nor what he did – his body was hurt in a way it's never hurt before and reality wasn't about to change just for him.

His head was then forced deeper into the sand, feeling said grainy substance now covering his hair and shoulders. Breathing became even harder as did his struggle to break free.

" **How does it feel, 'old friend?' How does it feel to be so utterly helpless in the face of the past?"** Salem whispered to him, her voice sounding so clear despite how much sand he could feel plugging his ears. **"Come on now, laugh! Laugh like you did just moments ago!"**

She lifted him up, high over her head before slamming him down again, this time onto his back. Something broke when that happened but before he could so much as grunt in response to this additional pain, he felt Salem grab him by his hair and yank his head up so that he would be forced to look at her.

With increasing weakness, Ozpin managed to shake the sand out of his face enough to look at Salem, whose expression was one of dark glee. She then kneeled a little and leaned forward, doing so in such a way as to place just a smidgen of her mass upon his prone form. But even such a small amount of mass was beyond his capabilities to budge and with him in his current state, the sudden pressure was mind-numbing.

"… **Ha. All done, eh?"** She chuckled darkly. **"To be expected given our difference in power now. Yet I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed… but then again, humans truly are such fragile beings. Still… I'm expecting more from you, Ozpin. Come on, keep struggling."**

She lifted him up to his feet and shoved him back lightly, 'lightly' in accordance to her definition of the word.

To Ozpin, he all but went flying back and it was only by sheer dumb luck that he was able to firmly plant himself into the sand just prior to being shoved. Even then, he went skidding back several yards and it took his remaining strength to remain upright.

He coughed and when he did so, he felt blood leave his mouth. The violent way Salem had handled him just now had only worsened the damage received not even a moment ago. His left lung was about ready to fully collapse and so was his sternum and ribs. It was a miracle he was still alive, in all honesty.

It was only now as he assessed his physical state that he became truly aware of his own approaching mortality.

And he found himself feeling rather unbothered by it.

All beings feared death, even those who claimed otherwise. He was no exception. However, as he stood before his former friend turned enemy of humanity, Ozpin's own fear of death had all but evaporated, replaced by a desire to do some good before finally kicking the bucket, a desire that was fueled by the anger that blossomed within him at his lack of damage upon Salem.

If he is to die here and now, it would not be without doing _something_ to Salem. If he could just so much as scratch her, he'd be able to die with just one less regret.

His determination must have shown through his face, for Salem's twisted smirk transformed into a frown. **"There it is…"** she began. **"That same bullheaded and irritating determination from our youth. The same stubbornness that had compelled you to ignore the possibilities I'd tried to open your eyes too and sell me out to those bastards that burned me alive. Now I finally have a chance to stomp it right out of you!"**

He ignored her words and tried to run forward – only for Salem to appear right in front of him, halting his charge before it could even begin. She raised her leg and delivered a vicious stomp to the side of his left knee, breaking it like a brittle twig. Then just as he began to fall forward, Salem's fist slammed harshly against his jaw, knocking out some of his teeth in the process. Then a second punch in the form of an uppercut buried itself in his gut, rumbling his stomach in a way irritated the rest of his insides.

Bile and blood welled up in his throat, his mind going blank from the hits and pain. Yet he persevered, using his remaining leg to skip forward, his left fist rocketing towards Salem.

And amazingly, his blow connected, Salem so surprised that her hits haven't felled him yet that she hadn't been able to dodge. But when his fist connected, the only thing Ozpin succeeded in doing was breaking his knuckles with a sickening crunch.

It was only now that Ozpin finally did away with all pretense and genuinely roared in fury. He wasn't about to let this much stop him just yet.

Faster than ever before, he pulled his left fist back and threw another punch, this one connecting with the side of Salem's temple before using his semblance to propel himself forward and smash his head directly against hers.

This cost him what remaining strength he had, however, and so he ended up with his eyes being barely even an inch away from Salem's own. He glared into the woman's surprised eyes with all the determination and fury he could muster and in doing so, he could've sworn he saw some flicker of familiar emotion within Salem's red eyes.

In the split second after, Ozpin recalled the events of back then, the way he and Salem used to act before everything went wrong at his hands. He recalled the uncertainty and even fear that would sometimes be present in Salem's eyes whenever things had gotten exceptionally tense…

And it was that very same look that had been in those eyes of hers just now.

Although he failed to do any actual damage to her, it would seem that his determination had rekindled her old self much more than even she would likely ever admit.

At this realization, Ozpin felt the indignancy within him fizzle out, his expression softening in the process.

It was at this point that his body finally began to succumb to all the damage he'd received and he started to fall back, but not before doing something that he, in his increasingly tired state of mind, didn't think he'd do now of all times:

He laughed.

Not in the mocking and bitter way from earlier when he'd tried to provoke Salem, but in the same exact way he'd used to do when he was just a young boy, when times had felt simpler to him, when he'd been arrogant and adventurous and had always dragged Salem around with him on his training sessions and so-called journeys.

It was as if the way he used to laugh back then had been ripped straight out of the past and inserted into the present.

He simply couldn't help it – laughing in remembrance of the past, that is. Of what could have been had he simply been smarter and less narrow-minded back then.

But now? None of it mattered anymore, he supposed.

Having fallen back onto the sand, his laughter faded and Ozpin could now only wearily look up at the sky above. It was still somewhat early in the day, but if he squinted just enough, he could vaguely make out pieces of the broken moon.

The sight of it filled his otherwise blurring vision and oddly enough put him at peace, sapping whatever fight he had left in him.

Still, he tried to move and found himself unable to anymore, Salem's few genuine blows having damaged him immensely.

"Ha…" Just as he let out that one final chuckle, Salem now slowly stood over him, the shadow she cast upon him making it hard to see what sort of expression she was making, though to be fair his vision had blurred even more.

His strength now fully gone and with his ability to breath gone as well, Ozpin slowly closed his eyes, knowing what was coming and silently preparing for it.

He could hear Salem lift one of her legs, positioning her foot just above his head.

As the woman then brought her foot down, the very last thought Ozpin had was that, before he'd closed his eyes, Salem had looked just a little sad…

And then he was no more.

* * *

Salem made not a single sound as she ended Ozpin's life. Not even when she used her semblance to all but disintegrate his body immediately after dealing the final blow did she utter a peep.

The way Ozpin had laughed at the end there and the expression he'd made…

She shook her head violently, ridding herself of the thoughts that had been suddenly popping into her mind. But what thoughts? What had they been about? Feeling so very frazzled, Salem was unable to tell what those thoughts had even been about despite how vehemently she'd wished to rid herself of them.

A long minute passed thereafter, the woman no longer quite feeling as excited as she had been earlier to crush Vacuo. Her mood was a very sour one now.

…Looks like Ozpin might have been right, after all, albeit to a very mild extent. There was a part of her that had remained unchanged since her younger days, back when she'd been pathetic.

She snorted.

Really now, how ridiculous. To think that the day she'd long since dreamed of would take a turn like this. She'll have to take some extra time here in Vacuo to properly purge whatever pitiful human traits she still had out of herself.

Rather than save Jaune Arc's family for last, perhaps it'd be best to start with them first then. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. It'd help get her back in the groove. Then once that's done, she'll head back to Vale and put an end to it once and for all.

A shame Ozpin now won't be able to see her raze his precious academy to the ground, but it's a 'loss' she'll just have to deal with.

Taking a brief few seconds to stretch and further get used to her new appearance, Salem then spread out her wings, ready to take flight once more-.

Only to stop.

There, up in the sky just now, there'd been a flash of light.

" **What in the…?"** she began to say, only to trail off as the flash of light faded before she could get a good look at it.

Only for her eyes to widen upon realizing a split second later just where it had originated from:

The _moon._

An instant, the entire world suddenly seemed to shake.

…Something has arrived on Remnant.

* * *

When Ozpin had all but ordered them to stay put and tend to the city, Amber had felt somewhat offended by the headmaster going off on his lonesome to stall Salem. To her, it had seemed like a stupid, nay, suicidal move to make.

But that was how she'd felt several minutes ago, when Ozpin had initially left and his orders had been passed onto her and the others by Glynda and that Qrow guy.

A few minutes after that, however, she was of a different mindset. While she still considered his move far from a smart one, it was perhaps the only option any of them really had. With the possibility of Grimm appearing to attack the city once more, it simply wouldn't do to have too many of them go to attack Salem, especially since such an option would've very likely resulted in their deaths.

It wasn't something she particularly agreed with, but it was one she honestly felt she had no choice but to accept under these dire circumstances. And so, since Ozpin's departure, she and the others had been quick to obey, with her and that Peter Port guy along with a handful of others tending to the walls around Vale while the rest checked on the people back at the various bunkers.

Even that Raven woman, who looked like a very stubborn lone-wolf type person, had reluctantly stayed behind for a handful of minutes before suddenly leaving through that portal thing she could do.

This all had occurred just a few minutes ago, however.

Now?

Now, all Amber was doing was covering eyes whilst simultaneously steadying herself as a blinding flash of light blue light struck the area just behind Vale's wall, placing whatever this was directly within the city.

Whatever it was, it had struck with enough force to make it feel like the entire world was shaking and immediately after the shaking subsided, Amber was quick to leap down from the wall and onto the street below, her senses as alert as they'll ever be.

Peter Port, who'd been further along the wall, leapt from his spot to somewhere not too far from her while the remaining huntsmen, huntresses, and soldiers that had been tending to the city's defenses were quick to surround whatever this was as well, weapons drawn and trigger fingers all but itching to fire.

The veritable pillar of light remained where it was, not as blinding as it had bene initially, but still far too intense for any of them to look at directly, which only put them more on edge.

Amber had to avert her eyes to the right, which allowed her to see Glynda, Qrow, and Oobleck come running towards the scene. That other blond guy, Tai or something like that, was bringing up the rear as well.

Now as they all gathered, the light finally began to die down and they all formed a perimeter, not wanting to let whatever this was past any of them.

Amber, being a Maiden, was the strongest one here in terms of sheer firepower, and so she boldly approached, her eyes brimming with said Maiden power.

As such, she was the first to see what the source of the pillar of light was – and despite the situation, she couldn't help but blush a fair bit.

There, in the very center of the crater that was formed, was a kneeling man. A kneeling _naked_ man.

The light finally died down completely and everyone else nearby saw the man as well and looked equally perplexed, though a number of women and even a few guys couldn't help but blush slightly despite themselves, the sight of the nude individual being so out of the ordinary even by today's standards that embarrassment was the only option.

The man then stood slowly up and Amber immediately assessed his form.

He was quite tall, six foot five in height, and with a heavily muscled build that made her and a handful of others nearby balk at the sheer amount of power that seemed to be radiating from this guy's hard and rippling muscles. However, his physique was a little slim, especially around the stomach and waist, denoting a certain sense of speed and agility to this individual. His arms and legs were equally well-muscled, built for immense power while also having a certain slimness to them that implied a good deal of flexibility and quickness.

Amber, despite herself, also couldn't help but look at, ah, a certain region of the man's form and her blush deepened immensely. This guy may be nude, but he _definitely_ wasn't 'weaponless.' She didn't seem to be the only one thinking along such lines because she just vaguely heard a nearby huntress mutter something along the lines of 'could kill a Deathstalker with that!'

Pulling her gaze away from there and upwards to the man's face, Amber couldn't help but gape ever so slightly.

The man looked to be in his early to mid-twenties, with sharp and noble facial features, like that of a warrior prince. He had golden blonde hair that travel straight down past his shoulders, but by how much Amber didn't know. But it was his eyes though that grabbed her attention the most, his irises a blazing blue, as if they were suns. They locked onto her with such an intensity that she simply froze in place.

Then his eyes closed and an expression of mild concentration formed on his face. Before everyone's very eyes, a shadowy substance formed and Amber's eyes went wide, recognizing it as being the same kind of shadowy substance that Tenebrous seemed to have been composed of.

Said substance, having seemingly appeared from nowhere, took shape, covering the man's nakedness by actually forming clothes of a sort, an odd combination between Atlas and Mistral styled clothing – black combat boots with white plated greaves over it, covering up to below his calves; black no-pocket combat trousers along with a matching waist cape that went down to his calves, said waist cape having intricate designs on it that were a pure white and blue in color. Nothing covered his upper body, however, with the only change being his hair being suddenly pulled up and a small black ribbon-like creation appearing to form a high ponytail.

After this was done, an almost awkward silence fell upon everyone there as the man, practically ignoring them, took a deep breath like a newborn taking its first breath of life before exhaling slowly.

His eyes then suddenly opened and he was looking directly at Amber.

And Amber, disbelief and amazement evident in her expression and voice, called out to the man. She knew exactly who he was now.

"Jaune…?!"

"Hey Amber," spoke the young man in a voice that was noticeably deeper than before, though still recognizable. A small smile bloomed on his face, filled with so many different emotions that trying to pinpoint each one would be impossible to do. He then turned slowly. "Glynda, Peter, Bart… everyone." He nodded almost serenely, as if nothing was out of place.

"W-What is-! What happened to you?!" asked Amber. She looked to his clothes. "…Where's Tenebrous?"

It may not exactly seem like much to a lot of the others here, but Jaune himself being able to utilize a shadowy substance like that wasn't something he'd been capable of before. That he could do it now…

Jaune's expression became bittersweet. "…He sacrificed the rest of his power and being to help me fully ascend." He raised his hands up to around his chest and stared at them before balling them gently into fists. He closed his eyes once more for a second before opening them.

When he did, the bittersweet expression was gone and in its place was one of resolve, one so great that it stopped Amber from asking anything else. More than that, it made her actually back up as did that of everyone else around the transformed man. His presence… to say that it was different from before would be putting it so very mildly – it'd be like comparing heaven and earth.

"But the full explanation can wait for later," he then said. He took a step forward and when he did, aura began to outright pour off him, light blue in color. As he did this, it felt like the entire atmosphere of the planet had thickened considerably, feeling more akin to a vast ocean now. Breathing quickly became harder to do. "Where's Salem?"

"V-V-Vacuo," Glynda spoke up out of the blue, the normally composed woman just as affected as the rest of them. "That's the only kingdom left before she likely comes back here."

"…Ozpin went to face her alone," Amber then said, taking a minute to find the strength needed just to stand properly let alone speak to Jaune. His power, great enough to seemingly affect the world itself, was just too suffocating.

At her words, his expression hardened and he began to walk past her, head held high and fists tightly clenched. As he did so, Amber turned to continue looking at him. She saw everyone else do the same as well.

As she did so, she was surprised to see that there'd been one other change that she hadn't noticed – there, on Jaune's upper back, was a tattoo, that of a sword standing upright with what looked like angels wings sprouting from it, three on each side. As Jaune unconsciously flexed his back, the tattoo shifted a bit, motioning as if the blade was to impale someone. Given his current state of mind, Amber thought this action, minor as it was, was rather symbolic.

"When this is all over," Jaune began. "I swear I'll be back to explain everything. Quite a bit has changed while I was away."

Nearby, still with his own semblance active, Peter Port chuckled. "Make sure you give that wretch a good thrashing first!"

Jaune turned his head ever so slightly, enough to reveal a reassuring smile.

"Hey Jaune," Amber found herself suddenly saying. "…I'll be holding you to that, you know?" His presence having calmed down just a bit, she had a much easier time speaking. She spoke the word rather teasingly, not unlike how she's come to speak with him during the time they'd gotten to know one another. "You're not worming your way out of this, got it?"

Jaune's smile grew ever so slightly. "Ha ha… yeah, I got it."

Turning away from her, he then girded himself for a brief second. Then… he jumped.

The sheer force of his jump was enough to shake the entire city, blowing Amber and the others back just hard enough to earn plenty of surprised cries out of them.

Landing on her rear harder than she'd have liked, Amber couldn't help but grumble a bit in direct response to this. But then her grumbling turned to a small smile. "Heh. Even after whatever happened to him, he's still clumsy…" She smiled softly. It was nice to know already that he still hasn't changed all much mentally.

She raised her head and looked off in the direction Jaune had leapt in and then whispered one final bit of encouragement. Even if he obviously can't hear it, she knew he'd obey eagerly.

"Kick her ass, Jaune. For all of us."

* * *

 **Wow. Hard to believe it, but it's finally here – the final battle! Brace yourselves everyone, for as of right now, I can say with confidence that the next chapter will be the last one prior to the epilogue!**

 **God, that feels oddly surreal to say for some reason. Probably because it felt like this fic took me longer than usual to build up to this point.**

 **Now then, a few little notes…**

 **Salem's new surprise form is one that I based off Demon god Baal from Fate Grand Order, specifically his humanoid form. You can check out the image of said form on the Type Moon wiki or on whatever image search engine you guys use. However, she still naturally retains a few traits from her previous draconic form, traits that I hope I did a decent job emphasizing a bit.**

 **As for Jaune, I based his new physical appearance on a character named Helios Alpha. He's from a VN called Silverio Trinity. Same thing goes for his clothes, albeit with a different color scheme to reflect Tenebrous as well as Jaune's own light blue aura. Oh, and as you'll see with the updated cover image for this fic, I took the liberty of removing the sleeves/shoulder ornaments that Helios has for Jaune's new look.**

 **Not to mention I gave Jaune a different tattoo than the one Helios has, specifically the Command Crest that Manaka Saijyou has from Fate Prototype. Partially because I find it cool, mainly because I find that it suits the symbolism I was going for there.**

 **In any case, I hope you like Salem's and Jaune's new looks.**

 **Now, with all that said, hope you all will look forward to the final battle! I'll be doing my best to make it as epic as I can!**

 **Until next time, everyone! Take care!**


	51. Chapter 51

Surprise, here's the final battle! Ha ha, bet you guys didn't expect it to come a little sooner than you originally thought, eh?

Well, as it turned out, despite the interlude I wrote previously for my original novel to help move the plot along a little faster, I'm still suffering from writer's block on that front. Not as much as before – I have a good idea of what I want to write for the next immediate event. However, the set-up to what I want has me stumped right now. So I decided to work on this chapter instead since I still had a strong muse for it.

God, how surreal it feels now to be at this point of the fic! But then, this is how it felt before when I neared the end of my previous fics. Must be a writer thing, ha ha.

Whelp, not going to bore you guys with anything more. Time for this chapter to start! Be ready to fully suspend your sense of disbelief!

Chapter 51

All across Remnant, the Grimm ceased what they were doing. There was no buildup to this sudden stop, no indications whatsoever that such a thing would ever even occur.

And yet, it did and in complete unison.

The people that had been fighting frantically for survival now found themselves standing around almost awkwardly and in great confusion when numerous Grimm simply stopped in mid-attack. And rather than take advantage of this oddity to strike down as many Grimm as possible, the various people instead saw fit to go and immediately start dragging in the wounded and dead, the speed of this collective action being further bolstered when the Grimm hordes then began to slowly leave the areas they'd been invading.

One after another, humanity as a whole looked to their families and loved ones and friends in a stupor, their minds unable to fully comprehend just what was going on now. Nonetheless, it was something that they weren't about to take for granted just yet.

So they continued about their new task of tending to the wounded and their defenses.

This was an oddity that was especially bizarre in Vacuo.

Having once been in the midst of a massive siege-like battle just outside the kingdom's few cities, the Grimm forces ceased what they were doing and began to slowly retreat in an almost trance-like state, no longer paying any attention to the human forces even when some humans proceeded to take some potshots at them.

"Just what the hell is going on now?" asked one person loudly, bloodied and battered and tired, but more than willing to keep on going if need be. But as of right now, this individual could only look thoroughly bewildered at the scene before him and turned to the leader of their fighting forces, Lucien Arc, with an almost pleading eye.

"Don't know," Lucien replied loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear. The outright cheery and excited expression he'd been sporting all throughout the fighting was nowhere to be seen, now replaced by a serious and observant expression.

He narrowed his eyes when the Grimm, upon leaving the city limits, then began to lower themselves, as if they now beginning to settle in for the long haul.

…They were waiting for something.

Moreover…

"It almost seems like they're prostrating themselves," the Arc patriarch mumbled to himself. And this fact, more than anything else, grabbed his attention and to an extent even worried him.

The thing about prostrating, is that it implied the one performing the action was doing so out of either reverence for or fear of someone. Like loyal knights before a king or minions before an evil overlord in those stories he used to read his children when they were young.

So with this in mind… just what could the Grimm possibly be prostrating to?

"Hmm?"

Lucien turned ever so slightly to see his wife now walk up beside him, her graceful yet bold steps at odds with the look of thoughtful confusion on her lovely face.

"What is it, Marie?" he asked her.

His wife motioned towards the Grimm for as far as both of them could see. Her expression turned uncertain and even fearful in some respect. "They're all facing towards the same place…"

Turning back around, Lucien took a second to observe for himself and saw that Marie was right on the money – the Grimm truly were facing towards the same place.

And call it his instincts or whatever, but Lucien was getting the feeling that the place they were all facing was located within the kingdom of Vacuo.

This didn't put him at ease at all.

Something must be over there and something quite powerful for the Grimm to be acting like this.

Placing an arm around his wife and giving her microscopically shivering form a reassuring squeeze, Lucien could only hope that whatever was out there would stay the fuck away.

* * *

Salem looked forward in absolute silence. She cursed herself ever so slightly in the process.

Following the realization that Jaune Arc and the Power had somehow managed to break out of her barrier while on the moon, rather than capitalize on the window of opportunity she still had to wreak some havoc, she'd chosen to wait instead.

Earlier, she'd been far above the two of them in power and now in her current state, she was even stronger. By all rights, those two should now be a complete nonfactor before her, especially now that her previously immense size was no longer a handicap.

However.

There'd been a definite shift, one that she couldn't quite define initially…

But now she could, what with Jaune Arc having arrived before her just a few minutes after that flash of light from the moon.

When he'd neared Vacuo, she'd suddenly become able to sort of sense his presence and it likely had been vice versa given he'd immediately approached her not even a split second after she'd detected him.

And so here they both stood, the Apostle of the Mind and the Apostle of the Power in absolute silence, little more than a few yards away from one another.

Salem drank in Jaune Arc's form, which was clearly different from before. And in this moment, she knew exactly what had occurred. The lack of the Power's presence merely added to it.

" **You've ascended,"** she muttered, just loud enough for the young man to hear.

"And you've only grown more hideous in the short time I was gone," shot back the young man in a deathly calm voice.

Salem merely grunted in response before finally looking away from her fellow Apostle. Focusing now on the connection she had with the Grimm, she felt her eyes narrow upon seeing that all of them had ceased activity and now bowed low to the ground. Even the air-based Grimm had landed to do so while the ones out in the sea that had been causing havoc amongst ships and small occupied islands had coiled themselves on the nearest bit of land or ocean floor in prostration.

This put her off, made her feel uneasy. Something else had definitely changed for her dear Grimm to be doing this.

"Where's Ozpin?" asked Jaune.

Salem slowly turned back to face him. **"That old fool is dead,"** she stated, having to try to actually sound pleased. Oh, how hard it was to do so – in addition to the discomfort killing Ozpin had brought to her, this new situation was making her feel very uneasy. **"Just as you'll soon be, if you don't back away."**

True to her expectations, however, Jaune's shining blue eyes merely narrowed, his dissonantly calm expression now gaining a certain edge to it.

He was angry. She could feel it strongly.

It was an emotion that helped to calm her nerves, enough to make her chuckle a bit. **"Ha, wish to avenge him? Do you really think you can? Having ascended, you're undoubtedly much stronger than you were before, but I've grown even stronger too. And besides… do you really think fighting me would be wise now? Even** _ **if**_ **you're capable of doing so, you know killing me will only end in disaster?"**

Jaune's now golden hair now flared up, pulsing with aura as did his entire form, sky blue aura surrounding him for a brief instant before disappearing. "That what you really think?" he muttered. "I'm sorry to say, but things have changed for you as well in this short amount of time."

His words were uttered in as quiet a voice as he could manage, yet something about said words managed to take the wind right out of Salem's sails. The sense of unease returned now.

It must have shown through on her face, for Jaune spoke again, even taking a step forward.

"You think you're untouchable," he stated. "And that might've been the case for a long time… _but not anymore._ "

Aura now began to flare out from Jaune's body and this time when it did, Salem could feel the power he now possessed. Not completely, but certainly more than a sample.

Her fingers twitched. Then her hands balled into tight fists.

Jaune looked down at her fists and then back up into her eyes. "…Come on now, Salem. Let's do this."

His past several words, spoken again that low tone of voice, triggered something within Salem, transforming her unease into rage.

Leaping forward at full speed, a speed equal to half the speed of light, Salem let out a roar as she swung a wild fist at Jaune's face.

The thing about her transition from her previously massive form to her current one is that she achieved the latter by converting mass into sheer physical ability. Thanks to her semblance, which had passively been breaking down and absorbing Grimm, people, buildings, land and even _the atmosphere itself_ during her earlier spree, she'd ended up achieving a mass of _ten billion tons,_ making her heavier than most mountains save for the absolute largest and heaviest of them.

In her current form, she _only_ weighed around several hundred thousand tons, the rest of the mass having been directly converted into strength and especially durability. Of the mass she converted, only about 20% of it had been focused on sheer strength… yet this made her so strong that with just one blow with her full strength she could outright _shatter_ the world several dozen times over!

And all of this godlike strength was being focused into one blow that practically flew towards Jaune Arc's face-.

And it connected.

Even though the man took the brunt of the blow and therefore most of its power, the entire world practically shook beneath them with all the violent force of a 10.0 earthquake, breaking apart entire areas and islands with terrifying ease. Every cloud in the atmosphere dissipated and underwater volcanos that have long since been dormant now erupted.

No doubt, the nearest people and Grimm who were hundreds of miles away from here, got blown back like ragdolls.

As for Jaune Arc-.

His head only budged _a few inches to the side_. The part of her fist that impacted against his left cheek was also _chipped_.

Salem, for the first time in her life, completely and utterly froze. She was seeing the results of her attack up close and personal yet her mind had shutdown, unable to process let alone actually comprehend what it was she was seeing.

"…My turn," spoke Jaune, her mind just scarcely rebooting enough for her to understand that much.

Still frozen, however, she could only watch as every muscle in his upper body tensed and rippled and prepared for action-.

 **PAIN.**

Pain was all she knew an instant later, her mind now fully functioning again just in time to experience this.

Her vision blurry and her sense of hearing unable to pick up anything, Salem had the time to simply focus on the pain coming from the left side of her face, a sensation that words could just barely do any justice to.

Seconds pass as she began to regain herself and it was only now that she able to see that she'd been knocked onto the sandy ground, her front facing up to the now cloudless sky.

But wait – something was wrong with this picture here.

Although unable to find it in her to stand up just yet, she was able to move around a bit now and she craned her neck to look 'up.'

And there, standing just several inches away from the top of her head was Jaune Arc. But here was the weird part: his back was towards her, allowing her a view, if only slightly due to the angle, of the tattoo on his back. The tattoo must be a symbol of the Power's connection to him, a reminder of sorts of the now deceased Power.

But she was getting beside herself there.

" **W-Why…?!"** she groaned out after a moment, spitting out blood and even teeth in the process.

Why was she looking up at his back?!

Finally able to get up, Salem sat up first and used her wings to then push herself a yard back and into a crouching position.

It was only now, as she looked in the direction opposite to Jaune that she saw a trail of devastation. Then, she turned around to look in the direction her fellow Apostle was still looking in and saw a similar path of destruction. Then she looked to the stance he was in, the Apostle looking as if he'd just delivered a right hook.

Her mind now working at full efficiency again, Salem was finally able to put together the pieces. And the image these pieces were forming left her gobsmacked.

" **No…"** she whispered, nearly breathless before roaring out her next words. **"Impossible! I refuse to believe it!"**

Indeed, she refused to believe it… but reality made such refusal impossible.

Jaune Arc had punched her hard enough to knock her _around the world._

Salem goggled.

Again, although nowhere near as heavy as she'd previously been, she still weighed several hundred thousand tons, far from a weight that anyone could hope to even budge, much less knock around the entire fucking planet in half a second.

And then the damage she'd actually received…

She put a hand to her face and when she did, she felt a _hole_ in her cheek and a large one at that, her claws brushing up against some teeth that hadn't been knocked out. Immediately, she used her semblance and aura to heal the wound in seconds, but she still felt rattled.

While 20% of the converted mass had been dedicated to strength, the rest of it had been channeled to sheer durability. Moments ago, she would've been able to say confidently that she was the toughest being in all of Remnant. Destroying the _sun_ would be easier in comparison to genuinely hurting her.

And yet, Jaune had done just that. He'd hit her so hard that not only had the pain rendered her completely out of it for a moment, but he'd genuinely damaged her body.

With this in mind, when she stood up and glared at him as he finally deemed it fit to turn around, it was with an entirely different perspective.

Jaune Arc is dangerous. He is a threat to her.

Letting out a sound unlike anything she's ever made before, she spread apart her legs and lowered her upper body a bit while also spreading out her arms. Her wings raised themselves high as she observed her foe, her wild stance indicating her desire to now take this much more seriously.

"Now that we've had our little displays of power…" Jaune then said, his expression slowly becoming one of anger and unbreakable resolve. "How about we really go at it?"

His entire body bristled with power as he glared at her, his presence now feeling positively suffocating.

Inwardly, Salem gulped. She'd have to start converting more mass again, bolster her power even more if she wished to regain the advantage.

But if there was one thing she could now reflect on regarding herself, it was that she no longer felt uncertain. Ozpin's death at her hands had perhaps been more of a blessing than she'd ever originally thought.

She may have felt some level of remorse over Ozpin's death… but now? Now she was resolved as well. Resolved to make humanity pay for all their crimes and self-hatred.

And she wasn't about to let this upstart get in the way of things.

The two of them promptly threw each other at one another.

And so their battle began in earnest.

* * *

Jaune never would have imagined having such power before in his life. But the reality before him was quickly forcing him to accept it.

He was strong, beyond strong now. Stronger than Salem, tougher and faster than her too. By all rights, he should probably have nothing to worry about now.

But he wasn't about to let that make him feel complacent.

So as the two of them threw themselves at each other, Jaune was quick to capitalize on the one thing he'd always surpassed her in from the very start-.

Namely, that he actually knew how to fight.

As they both neared each other, he immediately faked a punch with his left and the very instant Salem's attention began to turn to his left fist, he suddenly reached out with his right arm and grabbed hold of her by her left hand.

He pulled hard and her body, far heavier than it looked, weighed practically nothing in his grip.

With a 'hup!' escaping his lips, he then began to spin her around with just one arm despite her being taller than him by an inch or two. All but throwing her behind his own back, he reached out with his left hand and ended up latching onto one of her wings. He pulled on it with even more strength than before and it was torn right off, but not before letting go of her with his right so that the force of his pull brought Salem back around.

Throwing the wing aside quickly, he grabbed hold of her again and began to spin her once more. Spreading out his legs to make for a firm stance, he ended up doing something that no one ever would have imagined being done: turning another person into a veritable nun-chuk.

Around and around, he spun Salem at ever increasing speeds, using his newfound strength and momentum to bend her body in ways that would've killed anyone else in order to properly pass her underneath his armpits and between the legs, like some people did when showing off nun-chuk skills.

After doing this for a several seconds, Jaune felt he'd built up enough momentum.

With one more twirl, he launched Salem straight up into the sky with enough force to practically rip the atmosphere.

As enraged as he was at her for all the harm she's done up until today – especially all that's occurred today – he wasn't so driven by emotion that he couldn't restrain himself.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, he and Salem were veritable gods when compared to humanity, at least in terms of power. Having a fight here would do far more harm than it'd ever do good.

So he'd have to take the fight elsewhere, to the only place where no harm could be done – space itself.

But there was just one little thing he still had to do before chasing after Salem.

With a roar, he raised his left foot and then stomped down with tremendous force, enough to make the entire world tremble.

The lands that had started to rapidly split apart from Salem's initial strike against him began to reverse course, coming back together. The underwater volcanos that had started to erupt ceased activity and returned to their dormant states. The clouds that had been dissipated now began to visibly reform.

Jaune accomplished not through some special power he'd gained or through sheer brute strength, at least not completely by the latter-.

He'd accomplished this amazing feat of reversal by sheer willpower.

Satisfied that he'd mitigated the damage as much as he could, he then girded himself and leapt after Salem.

A millisecond later, he cleared the planet's orbit and was out in the vastness of space.

His action just now having only taken a virtual instant, Salem had only barely arrived in space just a split second ago herself, having yet to recover from the disorientation his spinning and throwing had created within her.

Good, that gave him just the opening he needed.

He slammed right into her, driving his right knee directly into her stomach with all the power now available to him. He nearly ripped right through and the blow prompted Salem to finally shake off the disorientation enough to open her mouth to scream.

Alas, it was a silent scream; space was a vacuum, after all.

But as quickly as she chose to scream, she ceased this and immediately glared at him. He glared back right before hitting her in the side of the neck with a vicious hammer-blow that propelled her through space and towards the moon.

He couldn't really fly, but that proved no problem for him. In another act that defied reality itself, he placed his feet as if he was hanging onto an invisible wall and promptly kicked off of this imaginary wall, launching himself towards the moon as well.

He took a microsecond longer than he should have, however.

Salem, having already landed on the moon, was quick to stand up and open her mouth once more, firing a massive beam of pure aura at him.

It struck him head-on with enough power to destroy worlds.

It slightly singed his eyebrows and hair and that was about all it did to him in terms of damage.

However, the attack succeeded in pushing him back, causing him to silently growl.

While he had an instinctive feel for how much stronger he was now as opposed to before, that was about as far as his knowledge went. If he had any other kind of abilities to combat Salem's long-range capabilities, he'd have to figure it out on his own.

Until then, close range was all he had to his name.

But this wasn't about to make him give up one bit. Far from it.

If close range was all he had, then he'll make it work.

Once more focusing his will to a razor sharp point, he defied reality, halting himself in his tracks and once more throwing himself at the moon at a speed that was just short of the speed of light.

Salem, as powerful as she is, had no way of matching such a speed and so he reached the moon with issue this time, slamming into its broken surface with enough force to display a good deal of rubble.

After doing so, he looked up just in time to see Salem just a kilometer away from having, having overshot his jump by just a bit; he'd intended to land closer to her, but this worked just as well.

By now, she'd grown back her torn off wing and he could see the monstrous woman channeling her aura even more into them, the wings changing. Into what exactly, he had no idea.

Not that he waited long enough to see what was going to happen.

He charged straight at her, getting right in her face before she could do much of anything with her wings or semblance. So instead, she lashed out with a wild elbow strike, but it was a sloppy attack. As quick a learner as she was, she simply sucked when it came to actual combat, lacking the training to develop proper stances and fighting technique and having no real combat experience to better her awareness of her surroundings.

But him on the other hand? He may not be the best warrior in the world, but he was no rookie.

As such, he saw up close the look of shock on Salem's face when his left foot slammed directly into her crotch, hard enough to smash through that scale-like skin of hers and draw blood. She'd been so obviously focused on what she could see of him that she neglected any kick he could launch.

When she began to keel over, he delivered a knee directly to her face before following up with an uppercut that shattered her jaw. Or so he was assuming – the lack of sound made it a little hard to judge.

But he hurt her, hurt her bad and this fueled his confidence.

When his uppercut knocked her off the moon's surface, just before she could go fully flying into space once more, he then spun and delivered a roundhouse kick that connected with her sides, knocking her kilometers across the moon, which obviously still quite large despite its broken state and slamming through several hill-like formations.

Keeping in mind the moon's weaker gravity, he leapt over to her, intending to slam his feet right into her chest.

But then Salem's semblance activated and the moon's surface warped, springing to life and pillars of stone forming and smashing against him hard.

He grunted silently. That had actually hurt just a bit.

Being forced back to the ground, Jaune could only end up looking on when Salem stood back up.

He narrowed his eyes; her wings were now gone. Salem, however, was looking just slightly larger, more muscular and as he still retained his Aura Vision albeit with it overlapping his regained eyesight, he had a good idea as to why this was the case.

He was no expert on how semblances like Salem's worked, but based off what he knew and how she had initially obtained so much power, it seems the woman had converted the mass that were her wings into additional power.

Power that she now demonstrated by attempting to blitz him, moving at significantly greater speeds than ever before.

And when he deflected the wide swing she threw at him, he noted that her strength had increased as well despite being able to also feel her weight having decreased significantly from just a moment ago.

Right then, so that's how things were going to go.

Salem tried to follow up her swing with a spin and then a backhand, an attack that he tilted his upper body back a few inches to avoid before then tensing his abs, contracting and thereby swing his upper body forward. His head slammed directly against hers, knocking her back several feet.

But that was his headbutt accomplished. She'd grown tougher too, the damage not quite as great as it had been before.

Still, it angered her and she then motioned with her hands, causing the ground all around to suddenly shift. Moon rock dislodged itself from where it was before and flew towards him, empowered by Salem's aura as to inflict genuine damage upon him.

Damage that he was forced to take due to the omni-directional barrage, the moon rocks pelting him hard enough to break against his body despite being strengthened by Salem's aura.

He grunted silently in pain but was otherwise unfazed. He kept his focus entirely on Salem, who was now backing up more and more. In response, more and more moon rock was uprooted to be used as projectiles against him.

This was something he was having no more of.

With a silent battle cry, he flared his aura and all the moon rock around him was immediately disintegrated.

He felt the disintegration occur through his own aura, the moon rock being obliterated on an atomic level. Jaune couldn't help but widen his eyes at this realization before then narrowing them.

If his aura could have this kind of effect when concentrated enough, then…

He focused, feeling his own aura reserves all but welling up in response to his will. It burst forth from his body a split second later, forming a perfect sphere behind him that was roughly half his size. It looked like a blue sun, threatening to destroy all that looked upon it.

And that's exactly what it did, albeit not quite in the way anyone else would probably think.

From the sphere shot forth three simultaneous beams of pure unfettered aura. They traveled forth at the speed of light, disintegrating on the atomic level all that they struck.

Jaune, forced to walk forward slowly due to how much concentration this required, watched as Salem put up a barrier of aura around herself… only for his beams to break right through it with ease, causing her to move several meters to the side to avoid being struck.

Even then, one of his beam clipped her – the entire right side of her stomach along with her right arm and part of the leg were completely gone. Her mouth was open in silent shock, her pure red eyes indicating her pain and subsequent anger.

Jaune deactivated this ability immediately thereafter, unable to keep from smiling a bit.

That had worked out much better than he thought. However, this ability wasn't one he'd be using again most likely; required too much concentration to do much else than walk forward. Given enough time and training, he could most likely change this fact, but against Salem right now, it wasn't worth it.

Still, at least he had a long-range option now.

That it gave him such a good opening too really helped.

Before Salem could fully begin to regenerate, he charged forward. His hand reached out and latched onto Salem's long hair, which he then used to pull her towards him. Her left leg was still intact, a fact that he promptly rectified by kicking in the side of the kneecap before then spinning her around to unleash a powerful punch into the open wound that pretty much made up her entire right side as of now.

His left fist traveled through the ruined flesh and hit her ribcage directly, fracturing it, but only partially. He tensed up slightly at this, for his blow ought to have shattered it completely. That it only fractured slightly instead meant she was converting more and more mass to power up.

Seeing as Salem could evidently survive this much damage, she obviously wasn't going to be easy to kill. So letting her get even tougher wasn't something he could afford.

Throwing her into a nearby cliff wall by her hair, Jaune began to unleash a barrage of blows unlike anything he's ever done before.

In the past, he always actually restrained how he fought.

Against that mute girl on the docks, she may have a natural advantage against him back then thanks to her agile and evasive style, but his goal back then had been to incapacitate only lightly, at least prior to plans having changed.

Against Peter, naturally the jolly man was his fellow staff member and friend. Crippling him was something he could never bring himself to do.

Against Amber, as powerful as the woman is and as tough a fight as she'd given him which could've gone either way back then, it had still ultimately been a spar.

In these three cases as well as in plenty others, there'd always been some set of unspoken rules, restrictions that kept him from fully going at it.

Again, he was by no means the most skilled combatant to ever live, but he knew what to aim for if he really wanted to hurt or kill someone.

And this was knowledge he was finally putting to use against Salem.

As vicious and fast as his barrage was, he wasn't swinging randomly – he put every bit of power behind each punch as he pulverized her remaining organs and bones. He even made sure to drive his knuckles deep into her eyes when he aimed for them.

He roared in silence as he twisted and pivoted and spun, repositioning his feet and moving his waist as needed to ensure he put as much momentum behind blow he threw.

Little did he know, his every movement started to get faster and faster, until he finally acclimated to his full potential for good, his blows striking Salem at the speed of light itself and with brute force that could be measured in the tenaton range.

Before he even knew it, he singlehandedly reduced Salem into a bloody paste, the cliffside wall he'd thrown her against utterly obliterated as well.

The results actually surprised him – he hadn't expected to pull off such a feat, let alone so quickly.

He even took several steps back, almost awkwardly.

That had felt… somewhat anticlimactic.

For a moment, he stared at the small puddles of blood that now seemed to just float where they were. However, the longer he stared at them, the more he became suspicious.

The feeling of awkwardness went away as figurative alarm bells started to blare crazily within his mind.

He scarcely got the time to respond properly to this feeling of warning though, for the blood suddenly began to coalesce into one, the entire area for miles being hit by what could only be described as a pseudo-sandstorm struck.

Jaune had no choice but to raise his arms over his face lest he risk being blinded.

And this proved to be a mistake.

Sensing movement near him, he turned to face this threat whilst also trying to maintain awareness of all else around him, an action that proved futile given the intensity of this pseudo-storm.

The next thing he knew, something latched onto him, pinning his arms directly to his sides as he was enveloped by a pair of black, spiky and scaled arms.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who this was.

Jaune grunted to himself as he tried and _failed_ to break free.

Salem had gotten him in a hold.

* * *

Salem inwardly sneered in glee.

Things had honestly been going bad for her for a solid minute there, especially when Jaune had somehow used his own aura to disintegrate a good portion of her body and had then unleashed the most painful barrage she'd ever had the displeasure to experience.

But now… now, things may have finally turned around.

Although fighting back in her previously wounded state would've been all but impossible against a multitude of blows like that, not fighting back at all had still been a risky action on her part.

Thankfully, it had paid off.

Having actually used the time she was getting pummeled to further convert her own mass, she'd also somehow managed to muster the focus needed to use her semblance the same exact way that had led to her initial transformed state.

It had not been Jaune's punches that had destroyed the entire cliff behind her – after all, here in space shockwaves produced from physical blows couldn't possibly occur. No, instead it had been her semblance that had gotten rid of the rock formation.

She had broken the formation down into matter for her to first absorb and then convert into power in addition to a majority of her remaining mass.

Now having a mass of only several hundred pounds, the rest of it had been given up in favor of greater power and durability.

How much greater? She honestly didn't know, but she was more than willing to find out.

With Jaune trapped within her bear hug, she began to squeeze as tightly as she could. Sure enough, the young man wasted no time resisting, his muscles flexing as he summoned all of his strength in breaking free.

For a brief second or two, it actually looked like he was about to succeed too, which caused Salem to worry… but then as she focused all of her new strength into her action, she was able to swiftly grasp him even more tightly than she already was.

Her worry alleviated, she grinned. Oh, how she wished she could gloat right now. Alas, the vacuum of space made that impossible. Probably one of the reasons Jaune took them both up here for all she knew.

But that aside…

With just a bit of concentration, she promptly unleashed several attacks that she decided to deem as 'aura bursts,' where her own aura essentially exploded forth from her body with enough force to completely vaporize an entire planet. The only reason the moon stayed intact was because all the power had been focused on Jaune, who had been about to try attacking her despite his current predicament.

He'd given her no quarter in this short amount of time so far and she wanted to return the favor.

His entire body seemed to snap back in her arms, his head especially, so much so in fact that it was a wonder he didn't break his own neck from it. Goes to show just how hard her sudden attacks struck him.

But it was only meant to give her an opening and nothing more really. She knew that her aura bursts would only do so much damage to him.

Focusing on her semblance, she focused as hard as she could on whatever matter she could draw from the void of space, including the surface of the moon.

In response to her will, several spikes with a thickness of four inches formed, fueled by her power to be able to pierce through just about anything.

And they all proceeded to impale Jaune just as Salem let go of him. Even though the spikes had formed from behind Jaune and she'd wasted no time backing up, Salem nearly ended up skewering herself as well due to how hasty she'd become for this moment alone.

Thankfully she avoided doing that to herself and surveyed her handiwork.

The spikes had pierced through every single organ she could think of – Jaune's heart and lungs, his appendix and kidneys, his stomach and liver, as well as the pancreas and even the spleen. The spikes then widened in size as they remained stuck in him, all but tearing him apart before her very eyes.

Jaune, pinned in place by the spikes, could only look down in genuine shock, pain coloring his expression albeit only slightly. Blood flowed freely from his mouth and the wounds but out here in space, it was a very slow ebb.

Salem couldn't help but feel giddy. Relieved, even.

Unbeknownst to herself, however, she was shivering like a scared little girl.

All this time, she'd been confident in the fact that none would dare try to kill her once they knew the truth behind the Grimm and the two gods that had governed them. No matter how much they may hate or fear her, surely they'd never try to actually kill her lest they wish to have the Grimm run completely berserk without her, the Mind, to keep them chained.

But this confidence had been shattered just a moment ago when Jaune had pummeled her into a puddle.

He had genuinely tried to kill her.

It had brought to mind the words he'd spoken just prior to their fight beginning, him having said that things have changed for her. It was now clear that this is what he meant though she still couldn't quite grasp why exactly he'd said that.

Did he figure out a way to somehow replace her as the Mind? It was the only thing that made sense. But this didn't matter – what did matter is that he'd tried to kill her and she wasn't about to let that go.

Truly, it was a good thing that her mastery of her semblance allowed her to survive even that ridiculous barrage of attacks.

And now, time to return the favor.

For whatever reason, her semblance had very little effect when applied directly to Jaune himself now, despite being made of flesh once more, but Salem didn't let that bother her. So using her power, she lifted the still skewered Apostle off the moon, levitating herself as well.

A few seconds later, they were well away from the moon and had a perfectly clear view of the sun. Having manipulated the spikes to extend a bit more and function as pseudo-shackles while still growing slowly to expand the holes they made, Salem then approached the shackled Jaune and glared at him up close and personal.

Despite his current state, Jaune returned the glare with an even greater fierceness than before, whatever pain he'd shown on his expression now gone.

Really now, just how defiant he still is. It was enough to make Salem silently snort in his face.

She then raised her right hand and reared it back. Concentrating, her claws extended and merged into a sword-like structure that was further empowered by her aura, its sharpness increasing drastically.

She mouthed just two words to him: _You lose._

And then she swung and decapitated him in one move.

His head began to float away from his body, his dying expression one of shock and even horror. Unlike her, whose semblance allowed her to stay conscious and pull herself back together on a molecular or even atomic level, Jaune's regeneration was lacking quite severely even in this new form. His previous form had been an exception since he'd been a being of pure aura, but it would seem the nigh-unkillable of that form didn't carry over to this.

If she had to hazard a guess, he'd likely be able to regenerate limbs and even his organs without issue in his fully realized state. But decapitation? Seems like that might be a step beyond what he could recover from.

Good.

But still not enough.

Manipulating the spikes once more, she pulled them violently out of his now lifeless body and broke the spikes down into matter and promptly converted it into pure power before her very eyes. Now in a state of energy, she gathered it all up before her left palm and prepared to fire it.

But before she did so, she created a barrier that promptly shrunk around Jaune's head and bod, keeping them both near each other.

She wished to destroy all traces of him, after all. Having to take a little extra time to dispose of the head after getting rid of the body wasn't something she wished to do, not when she still had plenty of anger to work out on the world below.

Best to do this in one shot.

So lining up her shot, Salem gave a mocking yet unknowingly shaky wave of the hand to Jaune.

And then she proceeded to finally fire the energy she'd gathered, pushing the barrier covered body and head towards its final destination-.

-The sun.

* * *

Contrary to what Salem likely thought, Jaune was still alive.

But not for very long at this rate.

Despite being vastly more powerful than ever before, it would seem that his regenerative abilities fell short of surviving a beheading.

And so, he could literally feel his own life bleed away from him, his mind slowly beginning to lose function.

Was this to be how it all ended?

Was this somehow fate?

Had his ascension ultimately been for nothing?

These questions flitted across his mind even as everything seemed to fade away.

In the end, Salem had managed to overcome the power advantage he'd had, having converted mass to power. It had worked quite well. And much like any other battle, all that was needed for the woman to turn things around had been just a single opportunity.

He'd been beaten. Beaten and now humanity was going to pay for his fail-.

 _NO._

 _No._

 _No._

 _No._

 _No NO_ _ **NO.**_

This single word suddenly popped into his mind, overriding all other slow and dying thoughts he had.

His mind may be able to logically look at things and – reluctantly, it must be said – consider all to be lost, over, forsaken.

But his soul, his spirit, his very sense of resolve itself now began to assert itself and erase all doubts, all traces of sorrow and mounting self-hatred.

This wasn't over just yet. Salem hadn't won, not by a long shot.

 _But she has. You are dying and will be dead soon,_ reality itself seemed to say to him. After all, despite how much his very soul still burned with emotion and resolve, he was dying. That was an unchangeable fact.

"Then ignore it!" Against all logic of the universe, he muttered these words aloud despite being only a head and it wasn't as if being trapped in this barrier suddenly meant there was an atmosphere for sound to be permitted.

Through sheer force of will, he'd once again broken past the restraints that physics and logic had placed upon existence.

But he was only getting started.

A Savior. That is what he now was.

From the very start of all this, back when Tenebrous and his other half had first desired to see humanity whole once more, he was meant to be a being that would guide humanity. He was meant to help them see the light in the darkness, that darkness wasn't something to be feared, but something to instead acknowledge and accept.

Two sides of the very same coin, opposite to one another yet irrevocably linked, needed in order to preserve balance and to truly progress forward.

It was a hell of a responsibility, one that may very well reek of pretentiousness now he took just a few seconds to dwell on it. But it was one he'd been entrusted with to fulfill.

He owed it to Tenebrous and to the deceased Mind. He owed it to humanity as a whole and to all of its members individually. He owed to his family and friends and to himself as well.

And like hell he was about to just give that all up because of a simple decapitation.

So as he was being launched towards the sun at faster than light speeds, he began to focus.

His will was promptly honed to a razor-sharp point and it became a veritable sword aimed at reality itself.

If reality would dare say he was dead or dying or whatever, then it had another thing coming. It would not restrain him, not now, not ever.

In response to his will, an impossibility then occurred – the cracking of reality.

 _You are dying! You will soon be dead! There is no changing that!_ Reality, although not sentient in any way, seemed to yell this out at him, tried to reassert itself once more.

But Jaune paid it no heed. Reality, specifically the reality that he was dying, cracked even more under the pressure of will.

And just as his unwanted journey to the sun finally reached its conclusion, reality finally bent to his will.

* * *

Jeanne, having recovered a fair bit of stamina now, had been more than a bit worried. It didn't take a genius to see everyone else here at Beacon were worried too.

She'd been all but unconscious when it happened, but upon fully waking up, she'd been quickly informed of the craziness that had occurred while she was out of it.

A massive draconic monstrosity that dwarfed even mountains themselves. Even though she trusted her friends, it'd been kind of hard to believe.

Yet there'd been a dark and frantic atmosphere all around them. People dawdling about and talking to one another in almost hushed voices, as if speaking too loudly would cause a catastrophe.

And when that massive beam of power had blown its way past the city not too long ago, everyone had – to put things bluntly – utterly lost their shit.

She couldn't blame them. She and her friends, all together again, had ended up just sitting there in silence thereafter, all of them too beaten or tired or both to engage in the same hysterics that many others were still in.

Nonetheless, it'd been a sobering sight for her to see. It had made everything else so far today just look so irrelevant, so completely small and fragile in comparison.

Although she didn't dare say it aloud, the sight of such an attack and the thought that it had come from that creature had crushed her hope of ever surviving this day. And that wasn't even getting into how the world seemed to shake a few times just a moment or two ago. It was as if all of Remnant itself was telling them that the end was nigh.

Needless to say, this was something that the others seemed to share in too, their hopes gone and all of them looking equally miserable in the wake of what could very well be the end. If the world shook like that again, then all of them may very well not live to see the night, much less the next day.

Jeanne huddled ever more to herself, wrapping her arms around her tightly drawn legs as if she was a child scared of the dark.

She tried to console herself with the fact that, if nothing else, she'll die among friends. Yet this was a half-hearted sentiment that was promptly beaten by a multitude of doubts and regrets and it took all she had to keep from crying.

She wanted to see her brother again. Her sisters and parents too. She wanted to be able to spend more time with her friends here, just laughing and doing the usual teen stuff that they all do outside of classes and training.

There was still so much more that she wished to do… and with that thing being wherever it was now, all those wishes would likely go unfulfilled.

But then, just as despair truly began to set within her and the others, an unbelievable thing occurred.

The sun, so bright despite how the day had been going so far, suddenly began to shine even more brightly.

An instant later, what could only be described as an explosion of light then occurred, filling the entirety of her vision even as she closed and covered her eyes. Yet there was no burning sensation, no irritation whatsoever and so reluctantly, Jeanne opened her eyes.

And all she saw was pure white, the light from the sun so insanely bright that the rest of the world around her became impossible to see. All around her, she could hear others muttering to themselves, just as perplexed as her when it became evident that the excessive light wasn't dangerous.

"Just what is going on anymore?!" Weiss all but yelled tiredly. Jeanne couldn't see her but judged the heiress to be somewhere to her left based on the direction her voice came from.

"It… doesn't hurt…?" muttered Ren.

"If anything, it feels… gentle," then spoke Pyrrha, the P of team JNPR sounding soft.

Jeanne then slowly stood up, still tired from earlier. But as she stood, she focused as much as she could on the enveloping light and closed her eyes as she finally noticed the sensation.

Pyrrha was right. Something about this light spoke of power far beyond comprehension, yet there was a gentleness to it that now began to wash all her worries and despair away.

…How strange. Something about this feeling seemed familiar.

Without even realizing it, she ended up muttering just one word in response to this familiarity. Or rather, she uttered a name.

"Jaune…?"

* * *

The light coming from the sun filled the entire solar system, no doubt rendering it visible from well outside of the galaxy for all Salem knew.

But there was one thing she did know for certain.

And it filled her with shock and rage.

Impossible. Simply impossible. It had to be coming for Jaune, yet that shouldn't be happening. He was dead now, dead!

Yet this phenomenon would state otherwise.

Unlike those on the planet below who felt a gentle and protective feeling wash over them, Salem felt something else entirely. It was by no means no negative kind of emotion, but rather it was simply an intent.

Specifically the intent to beat her, to crush her underfoot.

Jaune Arc no longer seemed to view her as a foe to beaten but rather as an obstacle to simply be overcome now. One might look at this comparison and see no difference between the two, but Salem knew… she knew!

Once again, things have changed.

And she prepared for it, mounting dozens upon dozens of barriers of pure aura all around her, ready to deflect any incoming attack-.

The light suddenly died down, the sun regaining its normal luminescence. The suddenness of this was enough to make her feel even more on edge.

Realizing that she was swiftly becoming too tense, Salem tried to calm herself down, taking a few deep breaths despite there being no air to drawn in or breath out.

She should be fine for a while.

From the earth to the sun, light takes approximately eight minutes to travel. She was able to blast him to the sun in about half a minute, but that was due to her specifically focusing on increasing the speed of her blast rather than its power.

Jaune, now once again inferior to her in ability if only by a bit, would likely take the full eight minutes to get back here. She should be fi-.

All of the barriers she put up shattered like glass simultaneously. She felt a fist sized hole suddenly appear between her breasts in that same instance as well. Pain greater than ever before assaulted her senses and mind and it was only due to the sheer shock factor of what had happened that kept her from writhing where she floated.

On pure instinct, she spun around.

And there, little more a few feet away from her was none other than Jaune Arc. Alive, whole, and angry.

The light from just seconds ago had all but outright spelled it out that he was alive. But to now suffer such injuries so out of the blue and to see the young man once more up close like this seemed to just shut down her mind.

How?! Just how could he possibly have survived?!

"Strange, isn't it?"

Having been in the process of unconsciously healing the hole in her chest via her semblance, those words froze her stiff, causing her healing to halt where it was at.

It wasn't so much what Jaune had said that made her freeze up. It was the mere fact that he spoke at all.

Impossible. Impossible! Impossibleimpossibleimpossibleimpossible!

This was space! A vacuum! He shouldn't be able to speak at all and yet-!

"To think when I first learned of your existence, I'd felt so utterly shocked. Mind-boggled. Back then, I'd thought to myself just how any one human could be so strong," he uttered, defying logic. His blue eyes narrowed dangerously as she final found it in her to finish healing. "But now? Now I look at you and wonder how one could be so _weak._ "

…Weak?

Her, weak?!

Shock slowly gave way to rage.

Just because he managed to pull off some crazy, Jaune thought he could get away with such arrogant remarks?!

Letting out a silent hiss, Salem activated her semblance once more. In response, space itself began to bend to her will.

It rippled and then contorted, ready to be wielded like a blade to smite this man. Salem reached and took ahold of it as if it were something physical. She then reared back her arms, ready to swing it with all her might.

But just as she started to swing, Jaune was suddenly in front of her. Before she could respond, he reached out with his right hand and grabbed hold of both her hands. His strength was unreal – her attack stopped right where it was immediately.

This didn't shock her, however, at least not as much as it should have. What did get to her was that she felt her semblance suddenly deactivate itself. And no matter how much she willed it to activate again, it refused to obey.

"Not in the sense of physical power or other abilities," Jaune now spoke, continuing from before. He didn't even seem to be struggling one bit with holding her back. "But rather in the sense of will. Of mentality and emotions."

He paused for a moment and for a brief second, it looked as if he now viewed her with pity. "…I don't know what kind of life you led prior to becoming what you are, but it's clear that the old you from back then is still very much present. You never really got the chance to properly grow up, develop as you should.

"And that's why you really hate humanity, don't you? Because everyone else has the ability to move on, to learn from mistakes and surpass traumas. To grow as people, collectively and individually. To be better than they were before. They can grow beyond what they once were… and that is something you can't really do.

"So that's why you've been lashing out like this with the Grimm and by your own hands. In the end, your jealously is what caused it all and nothing else. And for that, you have my sympathy and pity."

His grip on her tightened painfully, enough to nearly make her cry out in silence. "But my feelings towards you won't stop what needs to be done. After all, at the end of the day and regardless of your reasons and sob story, you've caused far too much suffering to ever truly atone for."

He let go of her and she flew back several meters, suddenly fearful. For just as Jaune let her go, his aura began to flare. And once more she bore witness to the power pouring forth from him. Somehow, his near-death experience just a moment ago had made him stronger.

Much, much stronger.

"I promised the others to give you a good thrashing," he then said, his muscles rippling as he prepared to attack. She too prepared to defend. "Brace yourself – the end is here for you and it won't be pleasant."

That was all the warning she got before his right fist smashed into and _through_ the side of her face, her mind unable to comprehend Jaune's increased speed, which exceeded the speed of light by a very noticeable margin.

His eyes bore into hers for an instant after impact, assessing things before he pulled his fist out of her face then struck her with a left elbow strike that sent her careening back towards the moon.

She struck so hard that she went barreling through it and emerged out of the other side in a microsecond.

Although the second attack hadn't been as all-powerful as the first one, it had still possessed more than a dozen times more power than she now had.

Disoriented and utterly flabbergasted at how things had turned out, Salem was only scarcely aware of Jaune approaching her.

And then after that, all she knew was chaos and pain.

* * *

After knocking her through the moon, Jaune had given chase without even a nanosecond's hesitation. He bore through the moon as if it wasn't even there and reached Salem before she could so much as gather even half a thought in that head of hers.

Spinning in midair, he then unleashed a vicious kick to her jaw and then immediately afterwards, he reached forward with his hand to grab her by the leg. He turned and flung her back to the moon, this time taking care to not through her too hard.

He wanted an actual surface to work with here, after all.

Salem went smashing into the broken moon's surface and he promptly smashed into her right afterwards, his feet burying themselves right into her chest and stomach. He hopped off her and kicked her with his right leg, just hard enough to lift her up almost onto her feet.

Before she could even begin to recuperate, Jaune moved forward, delivering a body blow that shattered her bones like glass. He unleashed another body blow with his other fist, the attack pulverizing her flesh along the sides.

Despite the damage he'd just inflicted, he bristled.

It was faint, but he could feel Salem's semblance at work, trying to push him back somehow. It would seem that even as out of it as she now was, she still tried to fight back.

It was honestly an admirable thing. But he wasn't going to let her have her way. Not anymore.

He reached out with his left hand and grabbed her by the face, his fingers digging into her skin with ease. Immediately, her semblance stopped working and he could all but feel her emotions through her aura. Her mind must be just a torrent of thoughts right now.

He couldn't quite blame her.

Even he was somewhat amazed.

Although he'd reached his full potential, it had only been in regards to his body and aura, which is to say he was now as physically strong and tough and fast as he'd ever get. As for his aura, he could finally afford to use it in the same manner as everyone else.

And that included finally being able to use his true semblance – Raging Sphere Savior, representing the very concept of 'savior' itself.

It was, for all intents and purposes, his very will given form and through it he can forcibly ignore all that would otherwise attempt to chain him. The laws of the universe no longer meant anything to him.

It was through this that he'd been able to do what he has thus far. It was thanks to this that he'd been able to forcibly undo some of the damage Salem had caused to the planet with just a stomp. It was thanks to this that he'd been able to kick off of space as if it were a physical surface.

And it was thanks to this he'd been able to outright _ignore_ his very own death, to the point where the very reality of it had cracked and ultimately shattered like glass. Truly, it was an abnormal form of restoration.

But best of all… through sheer unfettered will, he'd been able to finally shut down Salem's damned semblance. All it took to do so was physical contact. So long as he remained in contact with her, his very will would prevent her semblance from activating.

And it was this ability that was responsible for her obvious shock and panic.

Naturally, this was something he intended to capitalize on.

Still gripping her by the face, he unleashed several blows with his free hand, punching her first in the pelvis and working his way up until his final punch connected with her throat, smashing it in.

He let go just as the final blow connected and Salem stumbled back. Jaune then stepped forward and kicked in her kneecap from the front with enough force to not only break it but nearly bring the monstrous woman to her knees. He then lightly leapt forward and slammed his knee into her nose, crushing it.

He wasn't done just yet, however, using his current position to also smash his left elbow into the very top of her skull before taking half a step back to kick her forward.

He then spun and delivered a kick to the small of her back just as she stumbled around and watched as she went flying forward across the ground.

As this happened, Jaune actually slowed down for a moment, if only to marvel and reflect on what was now happening.

It was slight, but for this brief second, he pondered if perhaps he was being a little cruel here. But this thought was shoved aside when reminded of all that she's done.

Salem was truly a pitiful being. But this fact didn't undo all the harm she's done these past several decades out of sheer hate and spite.

That said, there was also his own power to consider here. He'd thought he'd become strong before, but now he made that level of strength look weak in comparison. Following his restoration, his physical prowess and overall power output had increased tremendously. Should he so desire, he could likely output enough power to destroy the entire solar system with complete ease. Hell, maybe even go beyond that.

To have so much power at his disposal… if anyone else were in his position, they'd likely become drunk on it or fear to use it for one reason or another.

Yet no such feelings came to him in this moment of reflection. His will was far too great to ever bend to such dark thoughts.

Yes, he was a Savior, a being who protects ands guides the innocent and lost while smiting all who would dare to harm them.

He was by no means a perfect being in any respect, but rather he was someone who'd strived to be the best he could be and achieved just that.

Silently affirming this, Jaune nodded to himself.

But rather than continue his assault, he remained where he was, somewhat at a loss.

While far more powerful than Salem could ever be, pure brute force and skill alone would not be enough to kill her. Even if he reduced her to a complete puddle of blood, she can just regenerate from it as she'd demonstrated earlier.

He supposed he could just keep on pummeling her until she's out of aura, which was needed to fuel her semblance and by extension her regeneration, but the woman possessed aura reserves far greater than all life on the planet combined. Should he choose to go with this method, it would take a while. It was slightly risky since there was always the possibility of Salem pulling out some trick to prolong things.

As much as he'd silently promised to give her a beatdown for her sins, he didn't want to drag things out that long.

He needed to end this soon so that he can go back and take care of the Grimm and other things back on Remnant.

"And I have just the thing…" he then muttered.

That aura attack he'd made earlier…

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Salem finally got up, no longer looking as disoriented and hurt as she'd been before. Looks like the scant few seconds he'd wasted on thinking had been enough for her to get up and start healing herself.

He didn't give her much chance to do anything else. He was right beside her burying his elbow into her regenerated ribs, breaking them again. This time around, Salem stayed focused just enough to try making a grab for him, her clawed right hand reaching for his ponytail.

Jaune didn't pay this any attention whatsoever, knowing it was a fruitless gesture on her part. Sure enough, when she tried to tug on it in the obvious hopes of throwing him off balance, he didn't budge a single millimeter.

Her own muscles seemed to bristle from strain at the failed move and she tried to back up. But at the same time, she was clearly rattled in all sorts of ways. Despite backing up to put distance between them, she still tried to launch a sloppy haymaker at his chest. It just barely struck him due to her being a bit too far to fully connect and succeeded only in breaking a few knuckles of hers.

He grabbed hold of the extended arm and pulled her close, smashing his elbow right into her heart. Then when her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets from the power of the blow, he promptly tossed her over his shoulder, sending her crashing into the ground once more, hard enough to form a large crater.

Without losing a step, Jaune unleashed a flurry of rapid punches, his semblance allowing him to generate an invisible pressure with each swing of his fists that smashed into Salem with immense force. This kept her pinned just long enough for him to close the distance to personally strike her.

Reaching out, he latched onto Salem's long hair and tugged on it so that she ended up jerking towards him. He promptly struck her with a powerful haymaker that smashed half her face in and nearly knocked her through the moon again.

He gave chase, delivering one blow after another to her as they both went drilling through the moon. He struck her right in the diaphragm, then the lungs in order to take whatever counted as a breath out here away from her. Only then did he begin to truly pummel her, no longer holding back as much. As a result, his blows essentially liquified the parts of the body that they struck.

He made sure not to destroy her completely, though, lest Salem pull a stunt similar to earlier. Powerful he may be, he'd rather not risk another turnaround being pulled on him.

With this in mind…

"Time to end this," he muttered.

He'd delivered a good enough beating, he'd say.

Making sure not to fully destroy Salem's head either, he then spun in space and struck her with a quick roundhouse kick that caused the woman to spin in place just as they both finally came out the other side of the moon.

In the midst of her impromptu spinning, Jaune grabbed her by an intact limb with both hands before beginning to spin her just like he had back on the planet. The sole difference between earlier and now was the speed at which he was doing so, easily surpassing light now that he didn't have to worry that much about holding back.

He spared Salem no further glances as he swung her around, instead focusing on activating that aura attack from earlier while his body moved on autopilot.

Jaune twisted and turned and twirled the woman around over and over for what felt like minutes when it was really only a split second in reality. After another microsecond of twisting Salem around did Jaune finally throw Salem.

He put all the strength he could into the throw and at speeds faster than lighter, Salem ended up flying away from the planet and was now well on her way out of the solar system. Barely ten seconds later, Salem was already passing by Mars.

All things considered, Jaune could just leave her be; by the time she fully came to and recovered, Salem would be well outside of the solar system by then. If she was really focused on coming back, it'd take her quite some time to make a full return to Remnant.

But he wasn't about to take such a chance. Besides, he's already resolved himself to what must be done and for that Salem's demise was a necessary one now.

Having spent the past several seconds concentrating, Jaune could now feel his own aura emanate from his body, forming a veritable miniature blue sun directly behind him. The aura pulsed as if it were alive before it began to warp in place.

He stared off into deep space, where Salem was still careening. If he squinted just hard enough, he could actually see her, but only barely. Her form rapidly dwindled out of his line of sight as she just kept on going, still out of it.

The poor woman didn't even know what was going on anymore, the beatdown he'd laid on her having well and truly beaten all manner of sense right out of her.

In a way, this was sort of a good thing for her – he may have promised to give Salem a good beating for all that she's done but doing things this way also meant that if nothing else, she wouldn't feel anything in the end.

It could be considered a mercy of sorts, from one fellow Apostle to the other.

"…Sleep now, Salem," he said softly. His final words for her were ones of sorrow and mercy, the young man unable to find it in him to make some epic pre-mortem one-liner or a bad quip. To him, this wasn't really a situation for such things. After all, given how the day had gone, boasting in the wake of such devastation would've been a smack in the face to all that have suffered and died.

He finally fired the aura that had coalesced.

Jaune then remained perfectly still as the beam traveled forth at even greater speeds than he'd thrown Salem at. He watched and waited until the beam finally struck its target roughly a second after firing, exploding on impact in order to indicate that it had hit its mark, Salem being utterly destroyed down to the subatomic level, a level that not even she could ever survive and recover from.

The light of the explosion was so bright and intense that it was like looking at multiple stars going supernova. Jaune didn't turn away from this sight for even a nanosecond, not even when the light began to slightly irritate his eyes. He supposed he owed Salem that much, if nothing else.

Only when the light completely died down several minutes later did Jaune finally nod to himself, the battle done.

Yet there was still so much more to be done, especially with the damage Salem had caused on this day.

Feeling solemn yet burning with purpose and quiet hope, Jaune turned around and began to head back to Remnant below.

The Trial was over.

* * *

 **So what do you think, guys? Worth it? Yes, no, maybe so? Be honest please!**

 **In all honesty myself, writing the latter half of this battle had proven pretty damn challenging to do given the environment they were fighting in (space) since it meant there wasn't really that much Jaune or Salem could do with the environment itself unless I really wanted to go all out and have them smashing into other planets and stars and stuff. I'd certainly considered such a thing but decided to keep things at a certain level. Hope you guys understand.**

 **Now regarding Jaune and his semblance and stuff. His true semblance as one could call it, which took his full potential being realized to even use, is basically the main ability of Helios Alpha, whose physical appearance served as the basis for Jaune's new look. And if you think it's overpowered, trust me, I actually _toned it down_ from the original one. Seriously, Helios was an OP character. Can't believe they managed to beat him in the VN.**

 **That said, while Helios' Asterism (his Raging Sphere Savior) is much more powerful than the slightly tweaked semblance I gave Jaune here, Jaune himself is far more powerful than him from a purely physical perspective – excluding when Helios got much stronger in the VN.**

 **Jaune, following his ignoring of his own death, became so powerful that if he really went all out, his attacks could wipe out everything for dozens of lightyears away from ground zero. Now, you may read the previous sentence and be wondering how he could be so powerful despite ultimately originating from the Will of the planet. The reason for his ridiculous power level is what he is, namely the embodiment of Power and the very concept of Savior given form. And people, in my personal experience, often view 'Saviors' as 'Heroes,' so Jaune is, in a way, the very concept of a Hero given form. And in most works of fictions, ranging from fairy tales to more, heroes never lose and will always grow stronger and more absurd until the enemy is defeated. I basically took this concept and ran with it to its most logical/extreme conclusion.**

 **Of course, this means that by that point Jaune was WAY stronger than Salem could ever be, but as I hope I did a decent job doing, it didn't mean the battle was suddenly over and done with by then. As powerful as he is physically, it's not like every physical blow is going to evenly distribute its power throughout Salem's entire body, which is why killing her through purely physical means would've been impossible for him even after becoming so strong – he'd be liquifying whatever part of her he hit, but she can regenerate her entire body from around the atomic level, so his physical advantage was somewhat nullified there. Hence the need for his aura attack.**

 **Speaking of which, in terms of sheer power, his physical attacks are equal to his aura beams, but the latter has the advantage of being able to explode if he wants them to and therefore destroy a lot more. Plus, his aura beams also initially have matter destruction as a side-effect on the atomic level initially before being upgraded to subatomic following his 'death.' It was this that allowed him to kill Salem for good in addition to the sheer power of the blast itself.**

 **Okay.**

 **Now with all that said (sorry if it seemed like I was trying to explain too much), let's move onto an important note here: the epilogue.**

 **I've finally gotten a good feel for what I want to do with the next chapter of my original novel, so I'll be working on that first before I get around to working on the epilogue. This means that I won't be finishing this fic for good until maybe around April, depending on how long exactly it takes me to work on my novel and, of course, what life throws at me in the meantime.**

 **Regarding the epilogue in and of itself, it'll be something of a general thing. Which is to say, it won't really feature any personal points of views from the characters like what I've been doing so far, but rather an overview of everything relevant following the final battle. I'll be doing my best to make it as I can, nonetheless, in order to have the proper emotional impact. Hope you all will look forward to it.**

 **Well, all that said, phew what a ride this has been! Despite a number of difficulties that I had with writing this, I had a lot of fun in the process and I hope you guys did too!**

 **Until the epilogue, everyone. Take care!**


	52. Epilogue

Here we are, guys! The epilogue is finally here!

Wow. Once more, I can't help but marvel at the fact I've reached the end of yet another fic! Just feels sort of surreal, though I honestly can't explain why.

In light of this fact, all I can do is simply say thank you to all of you for having read, favorited, followed and/or reviewed Don't Fear the Dark! This fic is by far the most popular one I've written so far and it just boggles my mind every time to see the favorite/follows/review numbers for it. Normally, I'd list the reviewers but there's just so many of you guys that I don't think I'd be able to get them all, ha ha.

Seriously, just thank you all for having stuck around with this fic until the very end. I suck at showing emotion properly through ANs like this and often times in person, but the mere fact you guys have enjoyed this fic until the end just gives me that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. And it is an amazing feel indeed!

Regarding my next fic now, it'll be a Highschool of the Dead one with some inspiration from another manga or two that I read. Not exactly a crossover per say, however. Oh, and I won't be starting to work on it until roughly a month after this is posted, that way I have time to work some more on my novel and also to think up a proper title for this next fic too, heh heh.

Don't know how many of you guys are HOTD fans or of horror in general but hope I can look forward to your continued support with the next fic!

Now then, time to end this with a nice bang!

P.S. decided a general perspective for the epilogue wouldn't work, so went with Jaune's perspective as is usual.

Epilogue

Dressed in black fatigues and a long sleeve grey shirt that was quite snug across his entire upper body, Jaune finished up what he'd been doing, namely finishing the final touches on a house he'd been helping in constructing.

Finishing this, he backed away to stretch, an action that caused the intricate black designs on the front of his shirt to distort, again due to the snugness of it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he pondered if he should get a new shirt or something; the snug fit wasn't quite something he liked. Alas, it was also something he'd inevitably gotten used to as there weren't many shirts that could loosely fit his muscular frame.

But that was beside the point.

He hadn't been the only one who'd helped construct this house. Instead, it'd be more accurate to say he'd merely been a volunteer who'd aided in a variety of small ways more than anything. Nonetheless, it didn't stop the other workers, consisting of men and women of varying ages from thanking him for his assistance.

Their words of thanks and praise weren't really new to him yet it made him blush ever so slightly in embarrassment all the same. However, when they offered to make a feast with him as their guest of honor for their humble village, he'd politely declined and made it a point to leave the instant he saw a chance to do so without alerting them.

With his immense speed, he was able to easily traverse from the village, located in southern Vale, to somewhere in Menagerie in a literal instant, thanks to his speed exceeding light itself by a great margin. Normally, moving at such speeds would have drastic consequences on the world, but thanks to his semblance which allowed him to outright ignore the laws of physics, he was able to keep the effects that were supposed to happen from moving at such speeds from occurring through sheer force of will.

"Another day well spent," he muttered to himself, now walking at a normal or even slow pace along a small path.

A year and a half has passed since he'd defeated Salem and a lot has changed as a result. First and foremost, he was now the veritable ruler of the Grimm and his very first order had been for the creatures born of mankind's inner darkness to retreat and fall dormant, an order that was still very much in place to this day. How much longer he intended to keep this order in effect, the young man honestly didn't know. Prior to the Trial, he'd spent so much time simply focusing on how to stop Salem that he hadn't quite been able to fathom what to even do after such a goal had been achieved.

Being a Savior was, to put it mildly, a much harder role than he'd thought. However, it was a challenge he welcomed with open arms. If nothing else, at least he would have the time needed to figure out something.

As things stood, however, he'd have his hands full with other matters.

Salem may have been stopped, but it definitely hadn't been without casualties. The kingdom of Atlas had been almost completely obliterated, with perhaps 15% of the kingdom's territories having survived the Trial relatively unscathed. The kingdom of Vale survived with barely half the kingdom having been crushed by the Grimm or Salem's personal efforts while Mistral had just scarcely beaten out Atlas in terms of land left barren. Vacuo had been the most fortunate if only because it'd been the Grimm that had done the kingdom any real damage while he'd stopped Salem before she'd begun her rampage there back then.

And that wasn't even getting into the lands outside the kingdoms, where plenty of towns and villages had resided until that day of horror.

Jaune wasn't sure what the numbers were, but the population of the entire world had dropped significantly to say the least. This past year and a half had been a long period of mourning as a result.

But that didn't mean it'd been devoid of all else. It had taken a few months following Salem's defeat, but the surviving people of Remnant had started to rebuild, slowly yet surely. This was something he'd been most eager to aid in, having spent a great deal of his time zipping from place to place, helping them rebuild homes and farmlands and in general just trying to help the people themselves slowly heal from the horrors of the Trial.

Needless to say, he'd been a busy man during this period of time, but it'd been most rewarding. In light of how powerful he'd become, it felt good to work humbly, to connect with those he'd worked alongside in the restoration process.

Over here in Menagerie, it was already the afternoon, the sun halfway set and as he walked upon a particularly large hill, Jaune took this brief moment to look at this sight before him.

Smiling softly at the setting sun, he proceeded to walk onwards until he finally reached the coast that resided on the most northwestern part of the island, where a fairly large cabin could be found. It was his home, if only for the time being.

Several months back, in order to keep as low a profile as was possible, he'd come here to establish a place for him to stay out of the limelight whenever he wasn't working. To this end, he secretly met with the leader of the 'Faunus' that lived here in Menagerie. To his surprise, said leader, Ghira Belladonna, was none other than Blake Belladonna's father. After a long but quiet discussion with the man and his wife Kali who'd later joined in the talk, Ghira had given him permission to reside on Menagerie, so long as he kept out of sight lest the populace be… agitated.

In exchange, Jaune would help the man and his wife out with any matters that may require an extra set of hands and it was something the Belladonnas had been grateful for.

"I'm back…" he called out as he entered the cabin, constructed from a combination of wood and stone. The large cabin was designed in the same style as the Belladonna's home, Jaune having liked the looks of their home quite a bit when he'd first met them.

A mumble, loud but incoherent, resonated from within the cabin's sole bedroom.

Jaune couldn't help but smile. Seems like she'd been in bed this whole time, just like she all but stated she'd be yesterday.

He entered the room, eager just to kick off his shoes and socks for the time being. He did so quietly as to not disturb the large bed's occupant, whose almost fitful mumbling from a second ago had given way to peaceful and most importantly full sleep once more.

Finishing with this action, he then exited the room and headed for the kitchen, eager to make something to eat. Not that he really needed to – ever since he fully ascended and took the time to figure out his new capabilities, he discovered that his own aura, virtually limitless in capacity, was enough to fully sustain him; eating, drinking, even sleeping… they were things he no longer needed physiologically.

But they were certainly things he enjoyed indulging in nonetheless. Besides, he wasn't simply cooking for himself anyways – about ten minutes into the cooking process, he could hear the door to the bedroom and the lady come out, letting out a loud but cute sounding yawn.

"…Hey there, Jaune," spoke Amber, the three simple words coming out slowly due to how sleepy she still evidently was. This sleepiness didn't make her smile any less beautiful, however.

"Hey," he said simply as he continued to cook. "Did I wake you with all the clattering around here? Sorry."

She shook her head and walked up slowly behind him while he kept his attention on the stove. She hugged him from behind and it was just the most enjoyable thing all day for him, even with the height difference, what with him standing at 6 foot 7 and her at around 5 foot 8.

As to why he was 6 foot 7 now as opposed to his previous height of 6 foot 5, well as it turned out, the ascension process hadn't been fully complete after all by the time he defeated Salem. A few weeks following that final battle, just so out of the blue, he'd sprouted two inches, bringing him to his current height and this small difference had been enough to make him shake his head for minutes on end when it had first occurred, if only at what the otherwise insignificant difference had implied:

He hadn't quite been at his full power when he'd fought Salem, even at the end when he'd beaten her. Only then, when he'd attained the same height as his dad, had the process fully come to end and left him at his physical prime.

The reason why he could say this with such certainty now is because when this final and – in his opinion – stupid change had occurred in his height, he'd simply felt his very being mature completely. It'd been a vague feeling and his explanation to those that had noticed this difference had been even vaguer, but alas he had no real way of describing what he felt. All he could say for certain is that he's finally hit his physical peak.

As to how much stronger this may have possibly made him, he had no idea. It wasn't as if he could go around testing his might anywhere, not unless he was willing to destroy the entire solar system and beyond. And obviously, he wasn't.

But now he was just letting his mind stray with these inane thoughts.

He stopped what he was doing long enough to turn around and return the hug. Feeling how tired Amber still was, however, he lifted her with absolute ease and placed her in the nearest chair, just several feet away from the stove and with a small dining table right next to it along with a few other chairs.

"Must have been a rough day for you yesterday," he said as he returned his attention to cooking.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Amber said as she settled into the chair with another yawn. She stretched her arms upwards, an action that caused the large plain shirt she liked to wear to sleep to lift upwards as well. And this large shirt was all she liked to wear to bed. As a result, her toned legs were exposed for Jaune to see and it took a considerable effort on his part to keep from staring for too long lest he get 'excited.'

Amber seemed to notice his momentary attention to her legs and smirked, clearly enjoying the brief glance.

Some odd months following the Trial's conclusion, he and the Fall Maiden had ended up getting noticeably closer to one another thanks to a number of their new duties leading to them often working side by side. Then at one point, following yet another funeral to bury some of the recovered dead, Amber had gotten drunk during the reception that occurred afterwards and had admitted her growing feelings to him, the Maiden having been fully aware of what she was doing at the time. Having felt the same way towards her by that time as well, he'd naturally reciprocated.

Perhaps reciprocated a little too strongly at the time because, well, by the end of that night a powerful thunderstorm had ended up forming as a direct result of their 'hook-up.'

Jaune never would've imagined Amber could be so, ah, vocal too, but he certainly learned this fact that night.

He will also readily admit that grief had played a part in them ultimately getting together due to the toll the Trial's aftermath had taken on everyone, but he definitely doesn't regret their ensuing relationship.

If anything, it really helped out the two of them to have someone to lean on. As a result, they were doing much better now emotionally than they were before during the first few months of reconstruction.

"Helped out several villages with finding some new hunting grounds," Amber then said, her smirk from before still present yet it seemed like she wasn't about to tease him for looking anytime soon. A good thing since even after these several months they've been together, he hadn't quite gotten used to her teasing. "Even helped them actually hunt. Brought in a good haul… but it took a long time to do it. Couldn't even use my Fall Maiden powers or else I'd have scared off every single animal for miles."

She'd grumbled at that last bit and Jaune couldn't help but laugh.

Thanks to her travels all across Remnant, Amber had picked up a plethora of knowledge regarding various areas, including which ones certain animal species liked to roam around in and where certain useful herbs could be located. This was knowledge that had been put to great use since the Trial's end and with good reason as to why:

With how thoroughly devastated most of the kingdoms were, the survivors had all been most wanting for food and proper medical supplies. Due to a severe lack of both at the time, people that would've otherwise survived ended up dying. This was a saddening incident that caused the few surviving authorities to take serious action once communications had been properly established once more.

With the Grimm dormant and well away from any and all areas humans inhabited and explored, any and all able-bodied huntsmen that weren't helping with reconstruction were sent out alongside any able-bodied farmers and actual hunters to hunt animals and bring them in as food. In other words, it was back to the ancient days of hunters and gatherers with the only real difference being huntsmen and huntresses who, with their advanced weaponry, helped make quick work of any particular spry and evasive prey.

In addition to this, seafood had seen a significant surge in popularity, if only out of necessity. While it certainly hadn't been a rarity prior to the Trial, seafood had been something of a luxury since sea-based Grimm had often kept fishermen on their toes and even often times unable to actually do their jobs due to the high risk. But with the Grimm no longer bothering humanity, people were able to fish at their leisure now.

Seafood had become a common thing now, especially since it was mainly the landmasses that had been affected by Salem's rampage, resulting in a significant loss of wildlife.

As far as stop-gap measures go, it wasn't really bad, though Jaune personally thought it could be better. Unfortunately, it wasn't as if any other ideas were forthcoming, bar for one.

"How goes that other project though? The one the councils of the kingdoms had tried implementing?" he asked as he finally finished making dinner.

Amber shrugged tiredly. "So far so good, but you know as well as I do that it's very much experimental. Though I have to give some of these farmers serious props – they know how to tame the unrulier animals."

Against all odds, some of the animal herds kept as livestock in the kingdoms survived, albeit barely. This was thanks to said livestock being kept in farms and facilities that often lied well away from the more populated areas of the four kingdoms, which Salem had primarily targeted. It was only due to the sheer range of the explosions the deceased woman's attacks had that these areas containing the livestock had been hit at all.

The same could be said for a lot of the land outside the kingdom. Despite the damage done, it was less than the damage each kingdom itself had suffered and as sheer luck would have it, a number of animals species had managed to survive, albeit with noticeably reduced numbers.

A project had been implemented for some of the animals hunted to be introduced into current herds being used as livestock to help bolster numbers. The idea was to try and restore livestock numbers to what it used to be like before. Whether or not this would work, Jaune could only wonder. For all his power, he lacked the foresight needed to accurately assess how good or stupid this plan truly was.

He walked to the table with two plates in hand. It was far from a fancy meal – simply grilled fish and rice with some extra spices thrown in for good measure. The two of them swiftly dug in for a moment in complete silence, having said what already needed to be said as far as updates went. Given that said 'updates' were ultimately nothing new in the grand scheme of things so far meant that there wasn't much for them to truly talk about in the end.

At least, as far as the topic of 'what'd you do today' went.

"So how about you?" Amber asked Jaune after taking a small bite of her fish, relishing in its taste. "Helped out another village?"

Jaune nodded. "Helped them finally finish rebuilding their homes. I can now proudly say the families there can live on their own once more rather than have to share a building with several other groups."

"…And how'd they react to you overall? Merely admiring? Zealously? Or did you have to practically twist their arms to make them give you permission to help?"

"Thankfully, the first of those three," Jaune said as he ate a bit of his rice. "But I could see that some of them looked at me like I was…."

A god.

That was the sole term he was looking for there yet was one he couldn't really bring himself to utter. Not like it would be the first time, however.

His overall relationship with the entirety of the world could only be described as complicated now… and that may be putting things nicely.

With the exception of those close to him such as Amber, none had any idea as to how powerful he truly was nor did anyone have any true idea as to what had occurred on the day of the Trial. The truth behind Salem and her power, the way he ascended and ultimately defeated her… these were things not known the surviving populace of the world.

However, those that had been there when he'd first returned to the planet following Tenebrous' sacrifice were not stupid; they could put two and two together. And while Glynda, having become Beacon's headmaster after Ozpin's passing, had sworn the huntsmen and huntresses there to secrecy for the time being, only those that were close to her such as Bart, Peter, and that Qrow guy had truly listened to her along with a handful of others.

But the rest that had seen him and had felt his power up close weren't quite so obedient. While they held a great deal of respect for Glynda, that didn't mean they'd just do whatever she outright demanded of them, especially since a number of them had been freelancers at the time. And with the presence he'd given off back then and the mere fact that Salem had been defeated not long after that, these huntsmen and huntresses had gone on to tell others over time of his very existence.

This was something that repeated itself as well with the soldiers that had been there, for they reported to general Ironwood and him alone. Word of his ascended state and power had swiftly reached Ironwood's ears along with the ears of anyone that a handful of the soldiers there knew.

However, as there'd been no actual evidence to back up their word, Jaune's existence had swiftly been deemed as little more than some form of propaganda, a rumor at best. Combined with how overwhelmed all of humanity had been following the Trial's end and severely hampered communications, this 'rumor' was ultimately a vague and relative unknown one.

It didn't stay this way for very long, though. And it was Jaune himself who ended up changing things.

Having been quick to start helping out with rebuilding anywhere and everywhere he could reach, word had just as quickly spread about a golden blond-haired man with a powerful yet reassuring presence appearing to help in so many different places that it'd be impossible for him to cover so much distance each and every time in such a short timeframe…

…Unless he was truly a being out of the ordinary.

Suddenly, the rumors that had been created about him in the beginning had more weight to them. And the more he helped out, the more people came to believe these rumors. Jaune didn't help his own case one bit when some violent groups, bandits who'd thought they could get away with pillaging while Remnant was in such a saddening state, made their appearance and he took the liberty of confronting them any time he became aware of any such groups' existence. Said confrontations tended to consist of him merely appearing directly before them and flaring his aura while delivering a stern verbal warning, his very presence becoming so much more powerful during these moments that on a few occasions, his very pressure had actually _broken_ some of the bandits' bones.

And there'd usually been witnesses to these events and word of him handling the bandits had spread as well, adding to the building momentum the initial rumors had gained.

As a result of this, he'd started to become something of a public figure and like any public figure before him, opinions ranged.

Some people seemed to view in a favorable light, seeing him not quite as a god but more like just a very powerful man that was more than willing to lend a hand. However, among this group, there were those that did view him as a god in light of the rumors, for on some occasions, they'd politely offered him grand feasts as some form of tribute or at least as grand as a feast could be in these still struggling times. He'd always politely refused and they'd acquiesce to his refusal, so these people were ultimately a group that could be easily handled.

But then there was a second group that, in the fact of the despair and terror the Trial had brought unto the world, viewed him in a far more zealous light. Already, there were several small cults dedicated to him that he personally tracked and shut down. Sacrifices ranging from simple dead animals to _humans_ of varying ages had been made to him at various points in time this past year. Sometimes he'd catch wind of this somehow and stop the sacrifices from continuing as quietly as he could. Other times, he was too late. As fast as he was, he was not omnipresent nor omniscient. It was mainly the smaller villages that had been hit especially hard by the Trial that were like this, practically every suffering member of said villages having all but prostrated before him even as he tried to help them rebuild or otherwise stay afloat until proper aid can arrive. He'd been offered plenty of women of varying ages and even men for him to take to bed and he'd quite vehemently refused each and every time.

Needless to say, this second group was a hard one to deal with and in more ways than one. The growing worship for him was truly disturbing.

And of course, there was a third group that was the exact opposite of the first two, viewing him in a much more negative light. For every ruined village he visited that admired or even worshipped him, there would be another that would look upon him in bitterness and disdain. He'd already lost track of the number of times these rightfully embittered people had yelled out in anguish at him, demanding why he, a so-called god, had taken so long to finally help humanity. These people had lost loved ones much like everyone else and it practically poisoned them to their core. With him around, the 'god' who'd arrived to end the onslaught of the Grimm, he made for a convenient target for all the anger and grief that had been building within these people ever since Salem's defeat. This held especially true when many had demanded that he, a 'god,' use his power to bring back those who've died only for him to say he couldn't do so. For all the logic-defying things he could pull off with his semblance, reviving the dead was one thing he'd never be capable of doing. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to bring himself to do so even if he had such an outrageous power.

In any case, helping this third group was by far the hardest for they often tried to turn down his aid. Sometimes he listened and respected their demands, but other times he didn't whenever it became apparent to him that they wouldn't be able to pull through without some outside help.

As various memories of his encounters with people from these three groups flitted through his mind, Jaune slowed in his eating and grunted in distaste. Not at the groups but at himself. Although he tried hard to avoid the whole 'what-if' line of thought that often plagued others, it was a hard thing to truly accomplish.

Had he and Tenebrous gone about things differently from the start, perhaps the Trial's conclusion could've been different and for the better. Alas, there was never a way to truly tell. For all he knew, any sooner actions could've simply compelled Salem to go down the same path she ultimately took at the end, monstrous transformation and all.

"Hey," Amber said. "Stop that. You've done that enough recently." In the fairly short amount of time they've been together, she's come to know how his thoughts go quite well.

Jaune sighed. "Yeah, I know. Still, it's a hard thing to do – not thinking of the what-ifs." Placing down his knife and fork, he turned his hands over so that they were palms-up. Not for the first time, he couldn't help but marvel at how much he's physically changed since his ascension fully occurred. Granted, his body had merely been forcefully accelerated to its physical prime, but still he sometimes felt boggled to know how much power he had at his disposal.

And to also know that for all of this godlike power, he still had a long way to go to being a true Savior.

He clenched his hands into fists, doing so tightly. So tightly that the entire cabin shook from the sheer amount of power the simple action had in it. He ceased doing so a second later and let out another sigh. "I'm resolved to see this through to the very end… but no matter how much I've done since then, it only feels like it's just going to get even tougher."

There was still so much to do. So, so much.

Amber stopped in her eating to reach out a hand and place it in his, giving it as tight a squeeze as she could manage. "I know you got this well in hand. It's just a matter of keeping at it." She smiled softly, but then it turned a little teasing. "And if you ever somehow feel like you can't go on, just come to me. I'll kick your butt back into gear."

At that, Jaune snorted a bit, cracking a smile thereafter. "Yeah, I bet you'd enjoy doing that too if it ever happened."

Amber pulled away from him and outright laughed. "You bet I would. And I might just have to do so pretty soon too."

Jaune quirked an eyebrow, food temporarily forgotten about. "Why's that?"

"I wasn't asleep for all of today – got rudely woken up much earlier by Ironwood." Amber grumbled out the general's name as if it were a curse. Let it be said that Amber was someone who much preferred having her sleep uninterrupted barring emergencies. "He just wanted to pass on a quick message to me and by extension to you."

"About what?"

"Two weeks from now, he plans to hold a conference that'll detail the truth," Amber explained. She motioned with arms towards everything around her. "The truth of all this. The Trial, Salem… you. And he'd very much like you there to assist with this since you are the expert on all this."

Jaune could only look at his lover with wide eyes. "Seriously? Didn't he just personally host an official grand funeral a month ago?"

Ever since the Trial concluded, numerous funerals had been held for those whose lives were lost during it. These funerals had been nothing grand, not by a long shot, and had been performed rather hastily due to the desperate need to get back to work in order to survive, a fact that had further saddened many who felt they had failed to give their deceased loved ones the proper send-off they deserve.

That was where James Ironwood had stepped. The general had been running himself into the ground trying to get the kingdom of Atlas up and running in all respects, but he'd also taken the time and painstaking effort to coordinate a worldwide event to honor all who'd lost their lives during the Trial. Since many of the deceased had already been buried or cremated – this applied only to the lucky ones whose bodies had even been found – pries had been lit instead at the restore capitals of the four kingdoms that were kept burning for a week.

Jaune had been there at each pry in the kingdoms when they'd been lit, having used his slight darkness manipulation power to craft himself a face hiding coat in an attempt to blend in.

He'd even used the time to destress and meet with his family, checking on them after months of zero contact. Although he'd made a point to meet up with them initially after the Trial ended and give them the explanation they deserved, the Arcs had still treated him as if all was normal, which is to say that his parents still treated him like their darling son and his sisters treated him as a pseudo-teddy bear to be hugged to death. Despite how shocked they'd been to learn all that he had to tell, they couldn't have possibly felt prouder of him to know he'd ended that nightmarish day and vowed to not tell a word of the truth to anyone until the time was right.

And now, it seems like that time was about to come if the general really insisted on it.

"That he did," Amber said in response to his question. "Seems a bit too soon to me, but it's his call, I guess. I mean, even after everything that's occurred, he still has a premium on the CCT, so if he wants to broadcast it everywhere, it's well within his right."

The maiden sighed and finally focused back on her meal, which had gotten somewhat cold. Taking a quick bite, her eyes lit up as she seemed to recall something else. "Oh, right. After he called and before I blissfully returned to the land of sleep, I texted the info to your sister. She sent a reply real quick after that. She and her friends aim to be there when the conference takes place."

"Really now?" Jaune asked, intrigued. "That'll be nice… I think." He sounded most uncertain at the end there and understandably so.

Aside from Jeanne and Glynda, he didn't really have much contact with anyone from Beacon anymore, if only due to how busy everyone had become with reconstruction. While huntsmen and huntresses mainly helped with hunting down wildlife, the trainees ended up being put to work in a variety of different ways, ranging from helping rebuild districts within major cities or protecting bullheads and on-foot caravans carrying relief aid to towns and villages that were further away from the kingdoms. Given all the bandits around, all of whom tended to be only noticeably better than civilians, they posed little threat to the trainees, especially when one or two professional huntsmen would find just enough time off from hunting to help out with these protection missions.

Naturally, his sister's team and team RWBY were among these selected trainees.

Ah, how he remembers having gently pulled his sister aside back then to explain everything to her just as he once promised he'd do, but he hadn't quite been able to do the same with the others. He was pretty sure Jeanne had told her friends though. If he really was going to see them again, just how would they react to him, he wondered…

Come to think of it…

"I hope they're alright," he mumbled, thinking of teams JNPR and RWBY. "Especially Weiss. If I remember right, her older sister was among those killed in Atlas' capital…"

Winter Schnee, if he remembered hearing right one time. She and all of the soldiers under her command were posthumously given the highest honors the Atlas military had in order to honor their sacrifice.

Amber made a sound of agreement. "I'm sure they're doing fine. Actually, not long after you killed Salem, when I'd gone back to Beacon to rest up, I bumped into them. They'd been doing okay physically, just kind of beaten up and tired. Mentally, they'd been exhausted… but at the time they looked like they were holding up okay. Simply being near each other seemed to just do wonders for them."

This may have been something that occurred a year and a half ago, but it helped Jaune perk up a bit. "I see. That's good. Even with all the craziness still going on today, if that's how they were holding up back then, then I'm sure they're holding just as well even now."

"Heh. Judging by how excited and forceful Jeanne sounded when she told me she'd be there at the conference, I'd say they're doing pretty well indeed."

"Still though," Jaune said, changing tracks a bit. "To now want to tell the public the whole truth… even I wonder if that's a good idea."

While he too wanted desperately to tell the truth behind everything to everyone, in practice such a thing was impossible. The world may be doing much better nowadays than before, but it was still going through a period of grief that the grand funeral only helped alleviate partially.

As he finally resumed eating his meal and finishing it, Jaune let out a hum. "I really ought to give him a call then, find out how exactly he wants this conference to go. With any luck, he'll only want to be revealing the truth bit by bit. If not though… going to have to talk him out of it."

Was the world ready for the truth? In his opinion, not really. At least not the whole truth. Sure, now with things beginning to slowly stabilize, people were starting to ask questions about the Trial and about him but giving them all the details in one go would only lead to further disaster.

No, it'd be best to reveal everything piecemeal. Start with something fairly simple like the truth behind the 'Faunus' and then slowly work up to the truth behind the Grimm, then the Power and Mind, the formation of the Trial, and finally him and Salem. Certainly not in one conference, but over several if he could talk the general into it, conferences that would take place over the span of another year or so in order to allow people a decent amount of time to come to terms with it all.

Yeah, that'd be for the best really. Doing otherwise would only spark a lot of unrest, unrest that many people simply wouldn't be able to handle.

That said… wow, to think Ironwood would still want to reveal the truth at all was kind of shocking. Given his position as Atlas' military general who clearly understood the need for secrecy, this kind of move was a real surprise.

"Heh, well it just goes to show that there's always going to be surprises waiting for us in life, right?" Amber said in response to his comment.

"Now that really is the truth," Jaune said with a chuckle.

With that, their evening proceeded to take on a more pleasant vibe as the two simply enjoyed one another's presence, sharing little tales of the more heartwarming things they've done over the past few days that they'd forgotten to tell each other about.

And then afterwards they final went to bed, readying themselves for yet another day of work tomorrow… but not before 'relieving' each other first, an act that made nearly the entire island quake as they'd been more energetic than usual.

The following day, Ghira had complained to them of the seismic activity.

The couple regretted nothing.

* * *

A week passes by without much fanfare. Jaune and Amber went about doing what they usually do, trying to do their part in helping the world heal.

Much like last week, however, Jaune found himself having a day or two of free time to himself and he decided to use the opportunity to do something he really ought to have done a month or so ago.

Rather than wait until the conference next week – he'd finally hashed out the details with James earlier this week – to see his sister and her friends, he decided to surprise them with a little visit instead.

He outright flew to Beacon in order to see her. Despite classes having been canceled in favor of sending the students out to help in reconstruction, it still served its purpose by offering the students their usual room and board. However, since the Trial's end, all the transfer students have since returned to their kingdoms to aid their homes while a good deal number of Beacon's students had done the same. Combined with a good deal of the remaining students being currently away on one mission or another alongside most of the staff, the once bustling academy was more akin to a ghost town for the time being than anything else.

It was a saddening sight to see, but also something of an encouraging one; it meant that the students were doing their parts as well in restoring the world. It also meant he didn't have to sneak his way around at his usually insane speeds.

This gave him time to pay a visit first to Peter and Glynda, both of whom happened to be taking today to rest up. He spent a good half hour or so simply talking with them, checking on how they were doing. He also discovered he'd just missed Bart by perhaps several minutes prior to his arrival, the speedy history professor having gone off to a village just a ways outside of Vale's walls.

Apparently, the history professor had introduced coffee to this village, something that had been a relative unknown to them and the adults there had come to like the drink quite a bit, enough to make Bart transport most of his personal coffee bean stash to them today.

It was something of a ridiculous tale, really, but one that had the three of them sharing some laughs, chuckles in the case of Glynda though.

After catching up with them, he then politely asked Glynda where teams RWBY and JNPR had gone as his sister hadn't answered her scroll when he called on his way here.

"Just take a guess," the deputy headmistress turned headmaster said with a small smile. "Out there, doing whatever they can to help."

That had put a smile on his face despite having figured as much. Glynda told him then that both groups were actually on the same mission, helping transport a large caravan of supplies out to somewhere near the border of Vale and Vacuo, having left several days ago.

Upon being told of the route they were taking, Jaune thanked the woman and bid her and Peter goodbye for now, but not before agreeing to Peter's request for a spar one day in the future, once the world was in much better shape. It would seem that, Savior or not, Peter still viewed him as a worthy rival that could be fought. It was a sentiment that Jaune hadn't been able to keep from shaking his head at in sheer disbelief, but it also touched him too just to know that he still had good friends here at Beacon despite all that has occurred.

And then he took off in search of his sister and her friends. Following the route Glynda had provided him, it didn't take him long at all to find them with his speed.

Needless to say, his appearance made for one hell of a surprise for the lot of them, including the workers that had been primarily tasked with the caravan in the first place.

Jaune got lucky; he'd come across them just as they'd been about to take a good long rest, having been pushing themselves this far with very few breaks up until now.

And so Jaune got the time he desired to spend with his sister and friends, all of whom were doing just as well as Amber had told him they'd be doing. To his pleasant surprise, they all took his appearance quite well. He wasn't sure if they believed any of the rumors that had been spread about since the Trial, but if they did, they certainly did a great job hiding it. In any case, their reactions towards him as they hung out and talked were genuine, their auras fluctuating before his very eyes with positive emotions.

He still couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable when Pyrrha eyed him quite hungrily, however, especially when even the slightest of actions on his part caused his arms or back to unconsciously flex and whatnot.

"Still, it's kind of nice to know that not much has changed," he'd muttered to himself at one point, a small and stupid smile on his face at the time.

On another note, he made sure to pull Weiss aside for a brief moment and offer his condolences to her about her sister, his words accepted without much of the grace the heiress was usually known for thanks to fatigue. Nonetheless, her gratitude was genuine and although there was still traces of sadness there in her expression and aura, Jaune felt a bit more at ease. For it was a sign that Weiss and by extension the others were all slowly moving on, one step at a time.

The time passed by quickly and before any of them knew it, it was already night. Not wanting to risk traveling during this time, they were quick to set up a proper camp and turn in for the night with some of them staying up for the first shift of guard duty.

Jaune was one of the guards thanks to sleep not being needed for him. But he volunteered for this role out of more than just the kindness of his heart.

He'd wanted some time alone to speak with one of the other guards on duty right now, who smiled at him so brightly that one could be forgiven for thinking it was still daytime.

"I've really missed you!" Jeanne said, half-whispering as she all but threw herself into him, hugging as tightly as she could.

"Same here, sis." He returned the hug somewhat awkwardly, not quite used to hugging his small sister with his matured body. Jeanne had always been short and kind of slender, small enough in general to sit comfortably on his lap back then, but now with his greater height and more muscular build, he really had to crane down here to hug her properly.

But it was an action he dedicated himself to with all he had. His sister deserved no less, especially since it was only now that they had the chance to talk alone.

When the hugging finally stopped, they pulled away from one another and gave each other a once over. Jeanne looked up at him with a sense of awe, the girl also not quite used to how much he's physically changed.

As for Jaune, he looked upon his sister and was relieved to see that she wasn't sporting any kind of wound. Seems like this mission so far had been a trouble-free one. He noted she'd grown just a little though, standing just slightly taller than before and a bit more filled out. He suppressed a chuckle, wondering if he'd soon have to start making boys and girls back off on her.

"You look good, Jeanne," he said.

"You too, big bro." Her smile really could light up the night.

The two fell into a comfortable silence then and there, trying to think of what to say.

Jaune could scarcely believe just how different things were now from how they were in the very beginning.

To think that when he'd first learned about all this, he'd worried so much for his sister here, fearing that one day Salem would come for her, never mind the burden he'd once thought she'd have to deal with. To think too that he'd joined Beacon just to keep an eye on her.

Alas, it had all proven sort of unnecessary. Instead, here he was as the new leader of the Grimm while Jeanne here possessed a power that could potentially unite all humanity if used right. He really had to question why exactly he was the Savior here.

And on that note…

"So how have you been?" he asked of her. "How's that semblance of yours turning out?"

When he'd first explained to her and to the rest of his family all that time ago about everything, Jeanne had also told them of the activation of her semblance and what it could do.

"So far so good! I've been practicing with it here and there, mainly to try and suppress any conflicts at some of the villages and towns we've been to," his sister answered. She looked a little sheepish before then looking a bit uncomfortable. "It's still really weird, you know, being able to sort of connect with others like that – like I'm making them do what I want to sometimes… but the emotional link is also really helpful too. Helps others realize that my friends and I really do want to help."

Jaune smiled. "That's good. I know it can be something of a scary thing, to know what exactly your semblance can do… but it can be a boon for all if used right. And I know doing the right thing is a natural thing for you."

She blushed under his praise and he couldn't help but pat her on the head as she did so, which only made her hum in delight.

He then turned and looked back at the makeshift camp. "I'm glad too that your friends are doing okay. Amber and I were just talking about you guys briefly just last week. To see with my own eyes how much you've grown while still staying true to yourselves… it really gives me hope for the future."

In all honesty, they were perhaps the ideal he was looking for here. They'd seen firsthand the horrors of the Trial and had been changed because of it. They all had gotten stronger in all sorts of ways yet they still retained many of the traits they'd been known for prior to that day. This was especially true in light of the fact that they all knew the whole truth.

If the rest of humanity can one day be like them, then the Trial certainly wouldn't be needed any more. Indeed, one day, the Grimm could finally cease to be too.

Jeanne shifted a bit under his ongoing head-pat to look at her friends too. The small grateful smile on her face only confirmed his thoughts. "Yeah. We may not have gone through as much as a lot of others out there, but I think we pulled through pretty well too."

Finally removing his hand from her head – and chuckling quietly at the way his sister pouted in the process – he continued to look at the sleeping forms of his sister's friends in admiration.

"How about you though, Jaune?"

"Hmm?"

"You holding up okay? We've heard the rumors, you know, about a living god with golden blond hair," Jeanne began. She looked at him in slight worry. "We've heard about the cults too… and those that pretty much hate your guts."

"Ah, that." His smile fell from his face and his expression turned neutral. "It's a saddening thing to know that I'm the cause of all that, but it was inevitable, really."

"But that doesn't make it right," Jeanne mumbled.

"It's how some people are and they have the right to be that way. In times of great and sudden change, not everyone is going to roll with it. And with how things had turned out in the end, well, with how much power I now have, calling me a god isn't that crazy a thing to do. Even if I am uncomfortable with such a title." He sighed lightly. "That said, I won't deny that it makes my job and desire that much harder to accomplish… but nothing worth wanting is ever truly easy."

"…So is that what the conference next week is for?" she asked him. "A step forward in accomplishing that?"

"Mhm. But only a step forward. The conference alone isn't going to change things that much for the better, let alone that quickly. There's still going to be a lot more to do."

"Then…" Jeanne's voice sounded quite sad, sad enough for him to turn away from the camp and look at her. His sister's expression was a downcast one and her hands were balling up into fists. "Then when will you finally be done with this Savior role of yours? When will you be coming back home to us for good?"

His expression softened immensely. "Wish I could say when. But my role as Savior is a bit more literal than any other title, remember? Even if one day soon, everything is better and the Grimm disappear upon humanity's completion, I'll still be around to help out."

"But we miss you so much! Mom and dad may be hiding it, but they really want to have you back home, even if only for a while. And our sisters feel the same way too!" Jeanne's words were spoken louder this time, but thankfully not enough to wake up the others. Still, some of them stirred in their deep sleep.

Seeing this, Jaune gently placed an arm around his sister and led her just a little bit away from the camp out of consideration for the exhausted teens and workers.

"Trust me, I miss you too," he said. "I may be comfortable living with Amber, but that doesn't make it any less painful inside for me to know you're all hurting from my absence. But this role was one I was _literally_ born for. Not only that, but I made a promise to Tenebrous that I'd fulfill my responsibility… and you know our family motto, Jeanne."

"An Arc never goes back on their word…" Jeanne mumbled out, sounding close to tears. "But… and I mean no offense here, big bro… but do you even know what exactly to do?"

Jaune, upon hearing those words, actually found himself smiling. It took a conscious effort to keep from laughing aloud. "Nope."

His sister looked up at him as he'd just grown a second head. Then a second later, his one-word answer made her slowly smile, even giggle quietly. "I should've seen that coming. After all, when has any of us Arcs known what exactly to do? Especially you, Jaune."

Jaune faked being wounded in the chest. "Ouch, that hurt! You sure have improved in the savagery department, sis!"

The two Arcs then shared a laugh that drew the attention of another night guard on duty, who looked at them in confusion. Shooting the man an apologetic glance, the siblings then quieted down and moved just a bit further away.

"From the start," Jaune began. "Tenebrous and I never knew what exactly to do. Forming complex and thoughtful plans hadn't been our forte. This lack of foresight may have cost us a lot, but you know something?"

"What?" Jeanne sounded genuinely curious.

Jaune smiled a little. "I'm actually kind of grateful for it."

"Grateful that you suck at planning?" His sister was rightfully confused.

"Yeah. When I first revealed Tenebrous' existence to the others back then, they looked at him and treated him as an entity beyond their understanding. They viewed him as something really quite unnatural and referred to him as an 'it.' But to me, he never seemed that way. The way he stumbled around like I did when it came to planning, the way he helped me out and the way he reacted to all sorts of new things… he may have been an actual god, but he seemed pretty human to me in this respect. He may have claimed to not understand emotion that much even at the end, but if you ask me, I think he understood emotion pretty well in his own way."

"That's why you always referred to him as, well, him." He looked to his sister, whose eyes were now wide in realization. "Because you two were together for so long, you got to really know how he was."

"Mhm. I'm kind of sad none of the others really caught onto it – after all, he and the Mind were born from both the will of the planet and _humanity's beliefs._ Which is to say, he was born from humanity itself. And what is humanity if not a species run by logic _and_ emotion?"

Jaune took a fair bit of joy at the gaping expression on his sister's face. Then he became serious. "I won't lie – the way we did things really could've turned out better. And the way I'm doing things now is hardly much of an improvement. But this is a very human quality that I'm glad to still have, no matter how much more powerful I've become since then. A Savior and a god are not the same thing, no matter how much many would believe otherwise.

"I may be stumbling around in the dark right now, but much like you and others out there, I'll find my own way out of it. And in doing so, I hope I'll be able to inspire others how to forge their own paths too… yeah, that is definitely something I can aspire to do for the time being."

A long silence then fell upon them.

Until, it was finally broken. By his sister's quiet laughter of all things.

"What is it?" he asked, confused.

"What you just said," Jeanne replied. She'd been laughing so hard yet trying just as hard to stay relatively quiet that she ended up slightly tearing up from the effort. Wiping away the small tears, she continued. "You say you're going to one day figure out how exactly to best live up to your role as Savior. But to me, it seems to me that you already have it all figured out. After all, as a Savior, you're meant to be something of a guide to humanity, right? Seems to me like you already have that down pat."

Jaune opened his mouth, ready to respond – only to stop. He could only gape for a moment before closing and opening his mouth several times in a row as he reflected on his own words.

In doing so, he came to the very same realization his sister seemed to have come to.

It must have shown on his face, for Jeanne smirked somewhat cheekily. But there was a warmness to her smirk and she then placed a hand on the hilt of Crocea Mors, which had been resting at her waist this entire time.

"Remember when you first started going to Lux and I said I'd eventually do the same? You probably thought that your desire to become a huntsman was simply something I was copying… and yeah, that's kind of true. But in reality, seeing you go to Lux and put so much effort into your training and hearing you talk about how you want to be a hero helped me figure out what it was that I wanted to do too. By forging ahead on your own path, filled with all of your own certainties and uncertainties, you helped me find and continue to make my own path in the process.

"And that's exactly what you're doing now as a Savior, Jaune; by trying to find your own way of doings thing, you're going to be serving as an inspiration to others to eventually find their own way too. I'd bet my favorite onesie on it." Jeanne paused and nodded her head, another thought seemingly coming to her. "Yeah, maybe that lack of foresight truly is a strength of yours – it only makes you that much more relatable to others, a paragon like what you and Tenebrous thought I'd be."

For the third time, silence fell upon them. Jaune could only stare at his sister with wide eyes. Under his gaze, Jeanne could only start fidgeting, evidently feeling awkward and worried if perhaps she'd said something wrong or stupid.

But then Jaune snorted and ruffled her hair. "Geez. And to think just a few minutes ago, you were worried about how people were reacting to me and such. Talk about a sudden one-eighty."

Now Jeanne started to sputter. "B-But that's now and what I said is about the future! I'm confident in what you'll do in the future, but I'm worried for you now!" She held her hands to the sides of her head. "Gah, wait, that sounded confusing!"

Jaune laughed, no longer mindful of how loud he and his sister were being. "Jeanne… thanks," he then said when his laughter finally died down. He beamed at her and pulled her in close for another hug, lifting her off the ground in the process. "That helped out a lot more than I can put into words."

"Air… air!" Jeanne wheezed as her face was smothered by his chest, his arms squeezing her just a bit too tightly.

He mumbled a quick sorry and let her go.

"Thought I was gonna die~" she whined.

He felt most sheepish. "Sorry," he said again. Looks like he still needed to work on his strength control.

His sister took in a deep breath in order to refill her air-deprived lungs. And then she smiled upon fully recovering. "Well, my near-death aside, glad to have helped. Heh heh, this is probably a first for me, helping you that is."

"That's not true," he automatically said.

"Eh, really?"

"…Never mind, it is true," he replied sheepishly, unable to recall any times where his sister had truly helped him out. "It was mainly me helping you out while growing up. Spoiling you too."

He grinned when she blushed and sputtered.

Jeanne then pouted, but this didn't last long before she broke into another smile that Jaune then mimicked. It seemed the two siblings simply couldn't get enough of such an action tonight, as if trying to make up for lost time.

Then Jeanne's eyes lit up. "Oh right! Mom and dad wanted me to pass on a message to you if I saw you first!"

Message from his parents? He was all ears. "What'd they say?"

"A-Ah, well…" Jeanne blushed and looked away. "When you told me how you and Amber hooked up, I told them and they've been pretty excited despite everything else going on."

Suddenly, Jaune experienced some flashbacks to his childhood, recalling how excited his parents had been when his eldest sister had first gone on a date or two.

"O-Okay…" He wasn't feeling as enthused to hear these messages anymore. "What'd they say?"

Jeanne's face had never been redder than it was now. "Mom said that if you're anything like dad, you should already have Amber p-p-pregnant by now. She wants to know if this really is the case and if she could name your firstborn."

"…W-We've only been together several months," he muttered as he processed those words, unable to bring himself to admit to his sister just how, ah, 'active' he and Amber have been. Given that they don't use protection, he now found himself wondering if she really could be… No, but before that… "Wait, firstborn?"

"…That's where dad's message comes in. He says that if you're anything like him then you and Amber are going to be having a lot of kids." Jeanne couldn't even bring herself to look him in the eyes anymore, her face so red that it was a miracle she hasn't fainted yet. "He wants you to have double the number of kids that he and mom had, so he has a lot of time to spoil them."

"T-That's sixteen kids! He wants sixteen grandkids?!" All pretense and consideration for the others nearby had been forgotten in the wake of these two messages. Jaune's face was almost as red as his sister's.

"Don't tell me that, tell them!" Jeanne shouted back

"Hey, as embarrassed as you are, you were still willing to tell me their messages, so just pass on mine to them: no way!"

"You're way faster than me, just go there right now and tell them that!"

"After what you just told me? No thanks, I'd rather wait until I can afford to look them in the eyes again!"

Back and forth their childish bickering over not-so-childish subject matter continued. Those that had been sleeping had been awakened by the increasingly louder yelling, but rather than look annoyed, they all seemed amused. Even the few other people that had been serving the first night shift of guard duty had become laxer in favor of just watching the show the two Arcs were unintentionally putting on for them.

It wasn't until Weiss and Yang simultaneously cleared their throats that both siblings became aware of everyone else's presence and swiftly became even more embarrassed from their actions.

Many of the others then proceeded to laugh at them, utterly unmindful of how loud they were now being in the process. Some of them, such as Ruby, Yang, and Nora, were laughing so hard as to nearly be in tears.

It honestly wasn't something that funny, but in light of absolutely everything that has occurred since Salem's defeat, perhaps the hard laughing was a way of compensating for all the good times that had been lost to Salem's actions.

In any case, the laughter proved infectious and Jaune and his sister joined in not even a moment later, their argument already forgotten about.

Sleep became something that no one felt like indulging in anymore and instead, a little camp party was quickly formed.

Ruby and Jeanne got some empty barrels that the caravan had been carrying and started beating them as if they were drums. Some of the people they'd been tasked with guarding joined in.

Ren and Nora found some strings and wood and used it to make what vaguely looked like a guitar, just far more primitive. However, it surprisingly played pretty well when enhanced a bit with aura to keep the pieces reinforced.

Pyrrha used her semblance to pick up some random scraps of metal lying in the back of the caravan to do random tricks with them while Yang had grabbed Blake and made her try and dance around the harmless pieces of scrap. Blake hardly seemed bothered by it, however, a small yet genuine smile on her face.

Weiss sat back and provided some beautiful vocals that somehow managed to fit the haphazard tune the others were playing and many of the workers there clapped and whooped in admiration of her singing voice.

As for the Arc siblings, Jeanne grabbed Jaune by the hand and tugged as hard as she could. Evidently, she felt like dancing.

"Come on! Let's join in!" she squealed like a giddy child.

Jaune could only laugh once more at how she was acting but allowed himself to be pulled nonetheless and seconds later, he and his sister had joined Yang and Blake and a few other caravan workers around the lit campfire in their silly dancing.

For the first time in a long time, Jaune felt completely at ease as he danced with everyone.

The world may still be in pieces that had to be put back together again and the foreseeable future of humanity itself seems rife with more and more problems, especially once the truth of it all slowly comes to light, but Jaune no longer felt any uncertainty in what he felt he had to do.

No longer did he feel unsure about how best to go about being a Savior. His sister's words several moments ago had seen to that.

With his mind fully made up and with all the small doubts he didn't even know he'd had until now simply washing away as he danced, Jaune slowed for just a brief second to look up at the broken moon, its light illuminating what would otherwise be a dark yet peaceful area.

He smiled at it tenderly.

The future, for all its problems, didn't feel so bleak anymore.

* * *

 **And done! My god, what a ride!**

 **Honestly hadn't been planning for the epilogue to be this long, but in a way I'm glad it ultimately turned out the way it had. While a lot of the info was done info-dump style through the narration itself, I do hope it wasn't a boring read for you guys.**

 **Pretty sure I didn't quite get all the plot points there, so if you notice any that went unaddressed and want to know how that turned out, just PM me and I'll be more than happy to answer!**

 **And again, I just want to thank you all for reading this fic until the very end. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it! I had a bit more trouble than usual writing this entire fic, but now I can say with absolute certainty that the frustration had been worth it, especially since I once again surpassed both the chapter and word count of my previous fic, ha ha ha.**

 **Now it's time to take a little time off from writing fics to plan out the smaller details of my next one! Hope that you'll like my new fic once I have it up!**

 **For a third and final time, thank you so much for reading! Take care!**


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